Selective Oxidative Cracking of n-Butane to Light Olefins over Hexagonal Boron Nitride with Limited Formation of COx.

In recent years, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has emerged as an unexpected catalyst for the oxidative dehydrogenation of alkanes. Here, the versatility of hBN was extended to alkane oxidative cracking chemistry by investigating the production of ethylene and propylene from n-butane. Cracking selectivity was primarily controlled by the ratio of n-butane to O2 within the reactant feed. Under O2 -lean conditions, increasing temperature led to increased selectivity to ethylene and propylene and decreased selectivity to COx . In addition to surface-mediated chemistry, homogeneous gas-phase reactions likely contributed to the observed product distribution, and a reaction mechanism was proposed based on these observations. The catalyst showed good stability under oxidative cracking conditions for 100 h time-on-stream while maintaining high selectivity to ethylene and propylene.