3- methylpentane in silicalite

Fig. 8 TEX-PEP profiles for labeled 2-methylpentane left) and n-hexane (right) at several detection positions in an equimolar mixture of n-hexane and 2-methylpentane in silicalite-1 at a total hydrocarbon pressure of 6.6 kPa and a temperature of 433 K (note that these two graphs have been obtained from two different experiments in which one of the two hydrocarbons was labeled)...

Figure 13 displays the self-diffusivities of n-hexane and 2-methylpentane in silicalite-1 and H-ZSM-5 as a function of the ratio of the hydrocarbons. The self-diffusivities of both hexanes linearly decrease with increasing gas-phase fraction of the branched hexane in the gas phase for the non-acidic and acidic zeolite. In H-ZSM-5, the mobility of alkanes is approximately two times slower than in silicalite-1. Obviously, the presence of acid sites strongly affects the molecular transport due to stronger interactions with the n-hexane molecules. A similar effect of Bronsted sites on the single component diffusion of aromatics was observed in MFI zeolites with different concentration of acid sites [63-65]. The frequency response (FR) technique provided similar results... 

Corresponding Arrhenius plots for the diffusion of 2-methylpentane in silicalite-1 and H-ZSM-5 are presented in Fig. 16, and the results are collected in Table 4. The diffusivities have been measured in the temperature interval... 

Figure 4.20 Adsorption isotherms of 2-methylpentane in Silicalite at various temperatures.

Figure 5.3 Adsorption isotherm of a 50%-50% mixture of hexcine cind 2-methylpentane in Silicalite.

With the TEX-PEP technique experiments on the diffusion and adsorption of mixture of n-hexane/2-methylpentane in large silicalite-1 crystals have been performed. By modeling the experimental tracer exchange curves values of intracrystalline diffusion coefficient and adsorption constant were obtained. Slight preference for the adsorption of /t-hexane was found. Diffusivity of -hexane sharply decreases with increasing fraction of its isomer, since the last one occupies channel intersections thus blocking zeolite network. 

Table 2 shows the adsorbed concentrations of the pure components. At a partial pressure of 6.6 kPa the amount of n-hexane is just slightly higher than that of isohexane in silicalite-1, while the linear alkane is obviously adsorbed more strongly than 2-methylpentane in H-ZSM-5 due to the stronger interaction with the acid sites. The maximum loading of each component has been measured by a separate adsorption study. The sorption capacity of n-hexane (7 molecules per unit cell), in agreement with earlier studies [48,59-61] exceeds that of 2-methylpentane (4 molecules per unit cell). The latter value equals the number of channel intersections in the MFI pore system per unit cell. Indeed, the sorption of isohexane molecules at... 

Around a value of the gas-phase fraction of 2-methylpentane of about 0.83, the influence of the acid sites on the n-hexane diffusivity is not dominant anymore in comparison to the pore occupation of slow-diffusing 2-methyl-pentane. Figure 14 shows the dependence of the diffusivities of both components versus the concentration of adsorbed 2-methylpentane in terms of molecules per unit cell. The diffusivities of n-hexane in silicalite-1 and H-ZSM-5 become nearly equal when the concentration of 2-methylpentane reaches approximately 2.75 molecules per unit cell. For 2-methylpentane we And that the self-diffusivity in silicalite-1 becomes very close to the value in H-ZSM-5 at the same loading. 

The current work indicates the strong effect of acid sites on the interaction and diffusivity of hydrocarbons. To further study this effect, we determined the single-component diffusion coefficients and specifically the activation energy for diffusion. Activated diffusion is described by the Arrhenius-type Eq. 8. The pre-exponential factor Djnf is related to the jump frequency between adsorption sites in the zeolite lattice, while the exponential expresses the chance that the molecules are able to overcome the free energy barrier - act between these sites. The loadings of n-hexane and 2-methylpentane in H-ZSM-5 and silicalite-1 have been measured at temperatures between 373 and 533 K at intervals of 20 K. The hydrocarbon pressure was taken identical... 

Figure 15 displays the loadings of n-hexane and 2-methylpentane in both zeolites. Under similar conditions, the adsorbed concentration of n-hexane is higher than that of 2-methylpentane, especially at lower temperatures. The interaction with n-hexane results in higher loadings for H-ZSM-5 than for silicalite-1. From the temperature dependence of the diffusivity of n-hexane in both zeolites, the apparent activation energy has been deduced and the results are collected in Table 3. Corresponding Arrhenius plots are shown... 

Summarizing, we observe that the presence of acid sites causes a decrease in the self-diffusivity of n-hexane and 2-methylpentane. In H-ZSM-5, we find that the diffusivity of n-hexane in mixtures with its branched isomer is determined by two factors (i) the interaction with acid sites, strong for the linear alkane, which decreases the diffusivity and (ii) the presence of 2-methylpentane which has an order of magnitude lower diffusivity. At low 2-methylpentane loadings the influence of the acid sites is dominating. However, at a loading of about 2.7 molecules per unit cell, the effect of pore blocking by the preferential location of the branched alkane in the intersections dominates. The diffusivities are then more or less equal in silicalite-1 and H-ZSM-5. 

The self-diffusivities of 2-methylpentane and n-hexane in their binary mixtures have been measured as a fimction of the ratio of the hydrocarbon in silicalite-1 at a temperature of 433 K. Figure 8 shows the tracer re-exchange... 

Fig. 9 Loadings of mixture components in silicalite as a function of 2-methylpentane fraction in the gas phase (total hydrocarbon partial pressure 6.6 kPa, T = 433 K)...

The loading of n-hexane in mixtures is somewhat higher than it is expected to be if it were proportional to its partial pressure (Fig. 12). On the contrary, the 2-methylpentane loading is somewhat lower. This points to preferential adsorption of -hexane over isohexane in their mixtures in H-ZSM-5 than in silicalite-1. In earlier experimental [50] and CBMC simulation studies [44] of n-hexane/isohexane mixtures in silicalite-1, a slight preferential adsorption of the linear alkane over the branched one has been found. The most prominent explanation for this preference is the molecular siting of these two hydrocarbon molecules. Whereas -hexane exhibits no clear preference for a position in the micropore system of MFI zeolite, the branched isomer is preferentially located at the channel intersections due to entropic reasons [44]. Consequently, 2-methylpentane will be pushed out from silicalite-1 by -hexane. These effects are even stronger for H-ZSM-5, most likely due to the stronger... 

Summarizing, we conclude that for binary mixtures of a linear and branched hexane in H-ZSM-5 and silicalite-1 two factors influence the respective diffusivities (i) the strong interaction with acid sites preferentially decreases n-hexane diffusivity and (ii) the blocking of intersection adsorption sites by 2-methylpentane decreases n-hexane diffusivity. At high loadings of the branched isomer the latter effect is dominating, and Anally the diffusivity of the linear hexane is totally determined by its branched isomer. 

Fig. 16 Arrhenius plots for diffusivities of n-hexane left) and of 2-methylpentane right) in silicalite-1 and H-ZSM-5...

E. J. M. Hensen, A. M. de Jong, and R. A. van Santen have written Chapter 7, which introduces the tracer exchange positron emission profiling (TEX-PEP) as an attractive technique for in-situ investigations, for example, in a stainless steel reactor, of the adsorption and diffusive properties of hydrocarbons in zeolites under chemical steady-state conditions. Self-diffusion coefficients of hydrocarbons, labeled by proton-emitting C at finite loadings and even in the presence of another imlabeled alkane, may be extracted. The method is illustrated by adsorption and diffusion measurements of linear (n-hexane) and branched (2-methylpentane) alkanes in Fl-ZSM-5 and silicalite-1. 

June et al. investigated the sorption and spatial distribution of butane and three hexane isomers within the pores of silicalite, using a Metropolis MC method (87) and MD simulations (85). Perturbations of conformation as a result of confinement within the pore were also reported. Heats of adsorption and Henry s law coefficients were found to be in good agreement with experimental values for butane (48-51 kJ/mol) (142,148,150,163-165) and n-hexane (70-71 kJ/mol) (163, 166, 167). The heats of sorption of the other two hexane isomers, 2- and 3-methylpentane, were predicted to be 5 kJ/mol lower than that of n-hexane. 

---