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A quantitative study of the structure–activity relationship in hierarchical zeolites using liquid‐phase reactions
Author(s) -
Xu Dandan,
Abdelrahman Omar,
Ahn Sang Hyun,
Guefrachi Yasmine,
Kuznetsov Anatoliy,
Ren Limin,
Hwang Sonjong,
Khaleel Maryam,
Al Hassan Saeed,
Liu Dongxia,
Hong Suk Bong,
Dauenhauer Paul,
Tsapatsis Michael
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.16503
Subject(s) - zeolite , catalysis , mesoporous material , alkylation , benzyl alcohol , diffusion , chemistry , chemical engineering , phase (matter) , liquid phase , chemical kinetics , mass transport , kinetics , materials science , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering , engineering physics
Micro/meso/macroporous (hierarchical) zeolites show remarkable catalytic performance for reactions involving bulky reactants. However, quantitative assessment of the microstructural characteristics contributing to the observed performance remains elusive. Here, structure–activity relationships are established for a set of micro/mesoporous self‐pillared pentasil (SPP) zeolites using two parallel liquid‐phase reactions (benzyl alcohol alkylation and self‐etherification) based on analysis of mass transport and reaction kinetics. A reaction–diffusion mathematical model is developed that quantitatively assigns the catalytic contributions of the external surface and micropores of SPP zeolites for these reactions. In addition, the effect of the zeolite external surface structure on the corresponding catalytic activity is quantitatively assessed by comparing SPP zeolites (with MFI structure) with MCM‐22 (with MWW structure). This work demonstrates that reaction–diffusion modeling allows quantitative description of the catalytic performance of hierarchical zeolites and provides a model reaction to assess nm‐sized characteristic diffusion lengths in MFI. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 65: 1067–1075, 2019