Silica, adsorption, acidic sites

Many solids have foreign atoms or molecular groupings on their surfaces that are so tightly held that they do not really enter into adsorption-desorption equilibrium and so can be regarded as part of the surface structure. The partial surface oxidation of carbon blacks has been mentioned as having an important influence on their adsorptive behavior (Section X-3A) depending on conditions, the oxidized surface may be acidic or basic (see Ref. 61), and the surface pattern of the carbon rings may be affected [62]. As one other example, the chemical nature of the acidic sites of silica-alumina catalysts has been a subject of much discussion. The main question has been whether the sites represented Brpnsted (proton donor) or Lewis (electron-acceptor) acids. Hall... 

Still another type of adsorption system is that in which either a proton transfer occurs between the adsorbent site and the adsorbate or a Lewis acid-base type of reaction occurs. An important group of solids having acid sites is that of the various silica-aluminas, widely used as cracking catalysts. The sites center on surface aluminum ions but could be either proton donor (Brpnsted acid) or Lewis acid in type. The type of site can be distinguished by infrared spectroscopy, since an adsorbed base, such as ammonia or pyridine, should be either in the ammonium or pyridinium ion form or in coordinated form. The type of data obtainable is illustrated in Fig. XVIII-20, which shows a portion of the infrared spectrum of pyridine adsorbed on a Mo(IV)-Al203 catalyst. In the presence of some surface water both Lewis and Brpnsted types of adsorbed pyridine are seen, as marked in the figure. Thus the features at 1450 and 1620 cm are attributed to pyridine bound to Lewis acid sites, while those at 1540... 

Zeolites as cracking catalysts are characterized hy higher activity and better selectivity toward middle distillates than amorphous silica-alumina catalysts. This is attrihuted to a greater acid sites density and a higher adsorption power for the reactants on the catalyst surface. 

This review will endeavor to outline some of the advantages of Raman Spectroscopy and so stimulate interest among workers in the field of surface chemistry to utilize Raman Spectroscopy in the study of surface phenomena. Up to the present time, most of the work has been directed to adsorption on oxide surfaces such as silicas and aluminas. An examination of the spectrum of a molecule adsorbed on such a surface may reveal information as to whether the molecule is physically or chemically adsorbed and whether the adsorption site is a Lewis acid site (an electron deficient site which can accept electrons from the adsorbate molecule) or a Bronsted acid site (a site which can donate a proton to an adsorbate molecule). A specific example of a surface having both Lewis and Bronsted acid sites is provided by silica-aluminas which are used as cracking catalysts. 

When a more acidic oxide is needed, amorphous silica-alumina as weU as meso-porous molecular sieves (MCM-41) are the most common choices. According to quantum chemical calculations, the Bronsted acid sites of binary sihca-alumina are bridged hydroxyl groups (=Si-OH-Al) and water molecules coordinated on a trigonal aluminum atom [63]. Si MAS NMR, TPD-NH3 and pyridine adsorption studies indicate that the surface chemistry of MCM-41 strongly resembles that of an amorphous sihca-alumina however, MCM-41 has a very regular structure [64, 65],... 

A good-quality CeMCM-41 material with Si/Ce=50 was synthesized by hydrothermal method. For the purpose of comparison a pure siliceous MCM-41 was prepared using the same composition without cerium. Thermogravimetric curves for the synthesized uncalcined samples exhibit shape characteristic for the MCM-41-type materials. The specific surface area of CeMCM-41 evaluated from nitrogen adsorption was equal to 850 m2/g, whereas the pore width and mesopore volume of this material were equal to 3.8 nm and 0.8 cm3/g, respectively. In contrast to the pure silica MCM-41, the CeMCM-41 material exhibits medium and strong acid sites as revealed by thermogravimetric studies of n-butylamine thermodesorption. 

The CeMCM-41 material studied had much higher quality than the corresponding MCM-41 sample synthesized under the same conditions. While both materials exhibited analogous adsorption properties with respect to nitrogen, their interaction with n-butylamine was different. Thermogravimetric analysis of w-butylamine thermodesorption showed that CeMCM-41 possessed medium and strong acid sites in contrast to the pure silica MCM-41, the acidity of which was negligible. Thus, incorporation of cerium to MCM-41 seems to improve its hydrothermal stability and enhance the adsorption and catalytic properties. 

Lewis acid sites can coordinate with a given indicator molecule to produce an adsorption band identical in position with that produced through proton addition. Even if the indicators used are responsive only to Brpn-sted acids, most basic reagents used to titrate surface acidity (e.g., n-butylamine, pyridine) are strongly adsorbed on surface sites other than Br0nsted acid sites. In this connection, a recent study indicates that adsorption equilibrium is not fully established during titration of silica-alumina with n-butylamine because of the irreversible attachment of amine molecules by adsorption sites at which they first arrive (31). 

Yoshizumi et al. (70) determined acid strength distributions on silica-alumina catalyst calorimetrically by measuring the heat adsorption of n-butylamine from benzene solution. They found that the differential heat of adsorption of n-butylamine ranged from 3.7 kcal/mole (weak acid sites) to 11.2 kcal/mole (strongest acid sites). 

The question of the acidity of silica, alumina and silica-alumina surfaces has always been of great interest to catalytic scientists. Previously, transmision infrared spectroscopy, particularly of pyridine adsorption, has been used to distinguish the presence of Lewis and Bronsted acid sites on oxide surfaces (24). The frequency shift of the surface OH group during adsorption now... 

The relationship between the two catalytic components is quite complex. Interactions between the support and the hydrogenation component can alter this relationship. For example, Larson et- al. (6) showed that, with platinum on silica-alumina, a selective adsorption of platinum by acid sites causes a reduction in catalyst acidity. Similarly, nickel reacts with the acid sites on silica-alumina forming nickel salts of the silica-alumina acid sites. It has been suggested (J) that one of the effects of sulfiding a nickel on... 

The acidic sites on iron oxides are believed to be FeOH sites (32), much like the well-known SiOH sites on silica. Heats of adsorption on iron oxide of bases of known Cg and Eg, having appreciably different ratios of Cg to Eg ("hardness" or "softness"), allow estimation of the and for the acidic sites of iron oxide. Our initial studies were done by measuring adsorption isotherms at two or more temperatures (Figure 7) and from the temperature coefficient of the equilibrium constant K the enthalpy of adsorption was calculated. In Figure 7 the adsorption data is plotted as a Langmuir isotherm ... 

Alumina, silica and many other metal oxides are insulators. However, recent experiments indicate that the surfaces of these insulators are mainly ionic (Masel, 1996). The pristine or freshly cleaved surfaces of single crystals of these oxides (cleaved under ultrahigh vacuum) are fairly inert and do not have significant adsorption capacities for even polar molecules such as CO and S02 (Masel, 1996 Henrich and Cox, 1994). However, the surface chemistry and adsorption properties are dominated by defects on real surfaces. For example, oxide vacancies on alumina expose the unsaturated aluminum atoms, which are electron acceptors, or Lewis acid sites. 

The silica surface (on both silica gel and MCM-41) provides a better substrate due to the lack of Lewis acid sites (unlike y-Al203), and consequently the Ag atoms in these sorbents are more capable of forming jr-complexation bonds with olefins. Although the effect of the physical characteristics of a substrate such as surface area and pore size would have on adsorption is clear, the effect of the electronic properties needs to be studied further. 

---