Highly dispersed vanadium-phosphorus oxide (V-P-O)/titania-silica xerogel (TiO~2-SiO~2) were prepared by the method of wet mulling. The effects of the liquid medium, loading of V-P-O and the calcination temperature on the structure of catalysts were investigated by BET, XRD, TEM and XPS. BET shows that isobutanol as the liquid medium causes less change to the surface area of catalysts. XRD and TEM show that the prepared catalysts possess high thermal-stability up to 923K. XPS analysis shows that the vanadium on the surface can be stabilized mainly in the state of V(IV). The test oxidation of propane was also carried out with the resulting catalysts.

Key words: TITANIUM DIOXIDE, SILICON DIOXIDE, VANADIUM OXIDE, PHOSPHORUS OXIDE, CATALYST, PROPANE, ACRYLIC ACID, X-RAY DIFFRACTION ANALYSIS, TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY, X-RAY PHOTOELECTRON SPECTROMETRY