Microwave dielectric heating is an emerging technology in heterogeneous catalysis. However, catalyst design in this field is not as well developed as when conventional heating is used. In this study the selective oxidation of propene to acrolein has been used as a model reaction to understand the how the properties of bismuth mixed metal oxide catalysts can be tuned for use in microwave assisted catalysis. The role of the dielectric properties, that are crucial to enable the catalyst to be heated in the microwave electric field, were determined using cavity perturbation methods.
Data is available in excel spreadsheets for the catalyst testing, X-ray diffraction, and cavity perturbation data for the different catalysts.