Chinese Journal of Catalysis

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Hierarchical mesoporous ZSM-5 zeolite with increased external surface acid sites and high catalytic performance in o-xylene isomerization

ZHOU Jiana,b, LIU Zhichenga, LI Liyuana, WANG Yangdonga, GAO Huanxina, YANG Weimina, XIE Zaikua, TANG Yib   

  1. a Shanghai Research Institute of Petrochemical Technology, SINOPEC, Shanghai 201208, China;
    b Department of Chemistry, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
  • Received:2013-02-24 Revised:2013-04-10 Online:2013-07-16 Published:2013-07-16
  • Supported by:

    This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2009CB623506), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Project (2012M510101), the Opening Project of State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure (SKL201208SIC), and the Shanghai Postdoctoral Scientific Program (12R21422000).

Abstract: Surface acid sites of hierarchical mesoporous ZSM-5 zeolite synthesized by steam-assisted crystallization were characterized by NH3 temperature-programmed desorption and in-situ infrared spectroscopy. Compared with the conventional ZSM-5 zeolite, the hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolite had a lower concentration of surface acid sites. However, the hierarchical structure had more Lewis acid sites and, more importantly, much more external active sites as confirmed by 2,6-di-tert-butylpyridine infrared spectroscopy. Such hierarchical structure exposed more acid sites on the external surface, which subsequently lead to higher catalytic activity in reactions involving bulky molecules, such as o-xylene isomerization.

Key words: Hierarchical structure, ZSM-5 zeolite, Surface acid site, Catalysis, Xylene isomerization