Zeolites with mesopores and mesoporous zeolites

PETR 6

Roel Prins, roel.prins@chem.ethz.ch, Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Wolfgang-Pauli Strasse 10, Zurich, 8093, Switzerland and Yinyong Sun, yinyong.sun@chem.ethz.ch, Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, ETH Zurich, Wolfgang-Pauli Strasse 10, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
Hierarchical mesoporous M-ZSM-5 was prepared using an amphiphilic organosilane as a templating agent. XRD and sorption data indicated that M-ZSM-5 is a mesoporous material with ZSM-5 framework. 29Si MAS NMR spectroscopy revealed that M-ZSM-5 was highly crystalline, like conventional ZSM-5. 27Al MAS NMR spectroscopy showed that most of the aluminum atoms were in tetrahedral coordination and 2-methyl-2-pentene isomerization exhibited that M-ZSM-5 possessed strong acidity, similar to ZSM-5. The Friedel-Crafts benzylation of benzene by benzyl alcohol was used to evaluate the catalytic reactivity of the hierarchical zeolite catalyst. M-ZSM-5 had a much higher catalytic activity than conventional ZSM-5 and amorphous silica-alumina. The apparent rate constant for M-ZSM-5 is 23 times larger than that for ZSM-5. The catalyst could be reused and maintained the initial activity after three cycles. These results indicate that hierarchical zeolites have potential application in Friedel-Crafts alkylations of large molecules.