The effects of the Cr concentration in hydrothermally synthesized Cr-MCM-41 and the impact of variouspostsynthesis treatments including grafting with alumina were investigated. Using physicochemicalcharacterization
by XRD, diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy, EPR spectroscopy,
29Si MAS NMRspectroscopy, H
2 TPR, and acidity measurements, formation of mono- and dichromate surface species aswell as Cr
V, dispersed Cr
III, and clustered Cr
III was detected, confirming the high speciation and valenceversatility of the surface chromium. The roles of each species in the preparation stage, calcination, leaching,and grafting are discussed. Leaching resulted in removal of all isolated Cr
III species, suggesting that Cr
III isattached to the MCM-41 surface via silanol groups. The resulting materials exhi
bited low acidity, with
bothLewis and Br
![](/images/entities/oslash.gif)
nsted acid sites
being present. The oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of cyclohexane wascatalyzed
by Cr-MCM-41 with a conversion of up to 25.7% in the temperature range of 533-633 K. TheCr
III sites have
been concluded to
be responsi
ble for cyclohexane ODH,
but total activity was influenced
bythe presence of easily reduci
ble Cr
VI at the
beginning of the reaction. During the reaction, high-valence Crions were reduced to clustered Cr
2O
3 species.