Synthesis, characterization and catalytic properties of MCM-36 pillared via the MCM-56 precursor

Abstract

Pillared layered MCM-36 zeolite (MCM-36-I) was successfully synthesized from MCM-56 precursor with polymeric silica as the pillaring agent. The structure and properties of the sample was characterized by means of N 2 adsorption, XRD, TEM and IR spectroscopy of pyridine adsorption. The results showed that MCM-36-I has higher external surface area and more Brönsted acidic sites on external surface than that on the MCM-36 sample (MCM-36-II) which was synthesized from layered MCM-22 precursor. The catalytic properties of these samples were tested for alkylation of benzene with isopropanol. Compared with MCM-36-II catalyst, MCM-36-I showed higher conversion of benzene and selectivity to cumene. This should be mainly assigned to the fact that MCM-36-I possesses larger amount of accessible Brönsted acid sites which located on the external surface than that of MCM-36-II. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.