Abstract: V₂O₅/NiO catalysts were prepared by a solid phase ball milling method using NiO and V₂O₅ calcined at different temperatures as precursors.The influence of precursor calcination temperature on the catalytic performance of the V₂O₅/NiO catalysts for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propene was investigated. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, nitrogen physisorption, inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, hydrogen temperature-programmed reduction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results showed that the prerared V₂O₅/NiO catalysts exhibited better catalytic performance and the catalyst obtained from the precursor calcined at 400 ^oC exhibited high selectivity for propene, which is due to their more noncomplete reduction oxygen species O^δ- existed on the surface of V₂O₅/NiO. At 475 ^oC, 20.1% of C₃H₈ conversion and 71.2% of C₃H₆ selectivity were observed over V₂O₅/NiO catalyst when the precursors were calcined at 400 ^oC.

Key words: ball milling, vanadium pentoxide, nickel monoxide, propane, oxidative dehydrogenation