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Performance of Bifunctional ZnZr/ZSM-5 Catalysts in the Alkylation of Benzene with Syngas

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Abstract

A novel alkylation process of benzene with syngas was successfully developed to produce toluene and xylene over a bifunctional catalyst containing zinc oxide (ZnO), zirconium oxide (ZrO2) and ZSM-5 zeolite. Different characterizations, such as: SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS, FT-IR, NH3-TPD and N2 adsorption–desorption were used to measure the structure of Zn/Zr samples. ZnO was identified as the active component for the synthesis of methanol while ZrO2 was the promoting component which helped the good dispersion of ZnO in the system. The sample with 0.75 Zn/Zr molar ratio calcined at 500 °C exhibited the best catalytic performance, resulting in benzene conversion of 34.7%, toluene and xylene selectivity of 68.8% and 18.0% at 450 °C under 3.2 MPa. Based on the experimental results, the reaction mechanism was proposed as following: methanol was firstly formed on the surface of ZnO/ZrO2 from syngas, then it migrated onto ZSM-5 zeolite and reacted with benzene to form toluene. Furthermore, xylene was obtained through consecutive reaction.

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Acknowledgements

This project was sponsored financially by Shanghai Postdoctoral Scientific Program and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21776076).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai, 200237, People’s Republic of China

    Yunbo Bai, Fan Yang, Xiangyu Liu, Chenxu Liu & Xuedong Zhu

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  1. Yunbo Bai
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  2. Fan Yang
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  3. Xiangyu Liu
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  4. Chenxu Liu
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  5. Xuedong Zhu
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Correspondence to Xuedong Zhu.

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Bai, Y., Yang, F., Liu, X. et al. Performance of Bifunctional ZnZr/ZSM-5 Catalysts in the Alkylation of Benzene with Syngas. Catal Lett 148, 3618–3627 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-018-2570-6

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