Shape-Selectivity Effects

Activated diffusion of the adsorbate is of interest in many cases. As the size of the diffusing molecule approaches that of the zeohte channels, the interaction energy becomes increasingly important. If the aperture is small relative to the molecular size, then the repulsive interaction is dominant and the diffusing species needs a specific activation energy to pass through the aperture. Similar shape-selective effects are shown in both catalysis and ion exchange, two important appHcations of these materials (21). 

Catalytic Properties. In zeoHtes, catalysis takes place preferentially within the intracrystaUine voids. Catalytic reactions are affected by aperture size and type of channel system, through which reactants and products must diffuse. Modification techniques include ion exchange, variation of Si/A1 ratio, hydrothermal dealumination or stabilization, which produces Lewis acidity, introduction of acidic groups such as bridging Si(OH)Al, which impart Briimsted acidity, and introducing dispersed metal phases such as noble metals. In addition, the zeoHte framework stmcture determines shape-selective effects. Several types have been demonstrated including reactant selectivity, product selectivity, and restricted transition-state selectivity (28). Nonshape-selective surface activity is observed on very small crystals, and it may be desirable to poison these sites selectively, eg, with bulky heterocycHc compounds unable to penetrate the channel apertures, or by surface sdation. 

Because the pore dimensions in narrow pore zeolites such as ZSM-22 are of molecular order, hydrocarbon conversion on such zeolites is affected by the geometry of the pores and the hydrocarbons. Acid sites can be situated at different locations in the zeolite framework, each with their specific shape-selective effects. On ZSM-22 bridge, pore mouth and micropore acid sites occur (see Fig. 2). The shape-selective effects observed on ZSM-22 are mainly caused by conversion at the pore mouth sites. These effects are accounted for in the hydrocracking kinetics in the physisorption, protonation and transition state formation [12]. 

A single-event microkinetic description of complex feedstock conversion allows a fundamental understanding of the occurring phenomena. The limited munber of reaction families results in a tractable number of feedstock independent kinetic parameters. The catalyst dependence of these parameters can be filtered out from these parameters using catalyst descriptors such as the total number of acid sites and the alkene standard protonation enthalpy or by accounting for the shape-selective effects. Relumped single-event microkinetics account for the full reaction network on molecular level and allow to adequately describe typical industrial hydrocracking data. 

Conclusive evidence has been presented that surface-catalyzed coupling of alcohols to ethers proceeds predominantly the S 2 pathway, in which product composition, oxygen retention, and chiral inversion is controlled 1 "competitive double parkir of reactant alcohols or by transition state shape selectivity. These two features afforded by the use of solid add catalysts result in selectivities that are superior to solution reactions. High resolution XPS data demonstrate that Brpnsted add centers activate the alcohols for ether synthesis over sulfonic add resins, and the reaction conditions in zeolites indicate that Brpnsted adds are active centers therein, too. Two different shape-selectivity effects on the alcohol coupling pathway were observed herein transition-state constraint in HZSM-5 and reactant approach constraint in H-mordenite. None of these effects is a molecular sieving of the reactant molecules in the main zeolite channels, as both methanol and isobutanol have dimensions smaller than the main channel diameters in ZSM-S and mordenite. 

In view of catalytic potential applications, there is a need for a convenient means of characterization of the porosity of new catalyst materials in order to quickly target the potential industrial catalytic applications of the studied catalysts. The use of model test reactions is a characterization tool of first choice, since this method has been very successful with zeolites where it precisely reflects shape-selectivity effects imposed by the porous structure of tested materials. Adsorption of probe molecules is another attractive approach. Both types of approaches will be presented in this work. The methodology developed in this work on zeolites Beta, USY and silica-alumina may be appropriate for determination of accessible mesoporosity in other types of dealuminated zeolites as well as in hierarchical materials presenting combinations of various types of pores. 

The type of treatment applied significantly affected the benzene/naphthalene (B/N) product ratio (Fig. 6). Thus, treatment with oxalic and citric acids, steaming plus HC1 washing, and partial Cs-exchanged increased the B/N ratio with respect to the untreated sample. In the first three cases, this effect may be explained by a preferential removal of the acid sites at the external zeolite surface, where naphthalene is predominantly formed [6], The reason of the increased B/N ratio in the 3Mo/CsHZ5 sample still needs to be elucidated, but a decrease in surface acidity in combination with an enhanced shape selectivity effect due to presence of voluminous Cs+ cations inside the micropores (a decrease in Vmicrop was noticed in Table 1) may be hypothesized. 

The alkylation of phenol investigated over H-MCM-22, H-ITQ-2 and H-MCM-36 showed that the delamelation and pillaring did not improve the catalytic activity and this was explained on the secondary processes taking place during the preparation of the corresponding materials, and which strongly affect the total acidity and the acidity on the external surface. Also, the composition of the reaction products is not influenced to a considerable extent by product shape selectivity effects. This seems to show that the tert-butylation reaction preferentially proceed at (or close to) the external surface of the zeolite layers. 

Alkylglucosides are a class of valuable commercial surfactants, particularly for cosmetics applications because of their biocompatibility. They are obtained by acetalization of carbohydrates with fatty alcohols in the presence of acid catalysts. Zeolites and MCM-41 have been used as acidic catalysts to achieve the acetalization of glucose with alcohols of different chain lengths [45, 46]. Shape selectivity effects decrease the amount of oligomers formed and the activity and selectivity can be controlled with the Si/Al ratio. 

Polyglycerols obtained by the dehydration of glycerol (Scheme 3.7) are employed as surfactants, lubricants, cosmetic, food additives, etc. Their esterification with fatty acids leads also to valuable emulsifiers or metal-working fluids. Zeolites have been used to take advantage of their shape selectivity effect to minimize oligomer formation, as described in two patents [61, 62]. A fair compromise between activity and selectivity has been obtained by Clacens et al. [63] using cesium-impregnated mesoporous MCM-41. 

Whatever the zeolite, 4-methoxyacetophenone is largely predominant (>98%), which indicates that this selective formation is not due to shape-selectivity effects, but is a characteristic of the reaction. In contrast, the selectivity of... 

Adsorption of various molecules that are similar in size to micropores have been used to characterize pore size and shape in zeolites, as summarized in Section 13.2.3.1, with the ultimate objective of understanding shape selectivity effects. Also... 

Dewaxing is the final example of a reaction illustrated here with possibly multiple restricted transition state shape selectivity effects. Bifunctional zeolitic catalysts... 

Meta-xylene isomerization to ortho- and para-xylene over 10- and 12-MR zeolites is another illustration of product shape selectivity effects [13]. The two products are essentially equally favorable from the standpoint of thermodynamics. With decreasing pore size, however, kinetics come into play and the selectivity to para-xylene increases, as illustrated in Figure 13.37 for results obtained at 317-318°C, 0.5 kPa meta-xylene pressure (in the presence of He carrier gas) and 10% conversion [64]. While the para ortho ratio is typically 1.0-1.5 with multi-dimensional... 

Other examples of systems that are likely to be governed by product shape selectivity effects include toluene disproportionation to para-xylene -i- benzene in favor of other xylenes r- benzene [61]. Toluene alkylation by methanol to give para-xylene in favor of other xylenes is yet another such example [76],... 

The catalytic isomerization of 1-methylnaphthalene and all lation of 2-methylnaphtha-lene with methanol were studied at ambient pressure in a flow-type fixed bed reactor. Acid zeolites with a Spaciousness Index between ca. 2 and 16 were found to be excellent isomerization catalysts which completely suppress the undesired disproportionation into nwhthalene and dimethylnaphthalenes due to transition state shape selectivity. Examples are HZSM-12, H-EU-1 and H-Beta. Optimum catalysts for the shape selective methylation of 2-methylnaphthalene are HZSM-5 and HZSM-li. All experimental finding concerning this reaction can be readily accounted for by conventional product shape selectivity combined with coke selectivation, so there is no need for invoking shape selectivity effects at the external surface or "nest effects", at variance with recent pubhcations from other groups. 

Since its discovery about 30 years ago [1-3], shape selective catalysis in microporous crystalline materials has been the subject of countless investigations. Review articles are now available [4-10] in which the principles and classification of shape selectivity effects are discussed and numerous examples are given. 

The efiect is thus not related to geometrical constraints induced on complexes anchored in mesoporous charmels (sometimes also called as confinement efiect, even if this definition is not properly correct), neither to shape-selectivity effects as possible in zeolites, since the size of mesoporous charmels is much larger than those of micro-porous materials. Instead, an effective modification on the characteristics of the fluids is observed due to the electrostatic field generated by the charmel walls. This is an enthalpic effect versus an entropic effect as observed when the modification is instead related to limitations in the translation modes of molecules. Recently, it was also demonstrated that wall curvature influence the molecular orientation of the... 

The consecutive formation of o-hydroxybenzophenone (Figure 3) occurred by Fries transposition over phenylbenzoate. In the Fries reaction catalyzed by Lewis-type systems, aimed at the synthesis of hydroxyarylketones starting from aryl esters, the mechanism can be either (i) intermolecular, in which the benzoyl cation acylates phenylbenzoate with formation of benzoylphenylbenzoate, while the Ph-O-AfCL complex generates phenol (in this case, hydroxybenzophenone is a consecutive product of phenylbenzoate transformation), or (ii) intramolecular, in which phenylbenzoate directly transforms into hydroxybenzophenone, or (iii) again intermolecular, in which however the benzoyl cation acylates the Ph-O-AfCL complex, with formation of another complex which then decomposes to yield hydroxybenzophenone (mechanism of monomolecular deacylation-acylation). Mechanisms (i) and (iii) lead preferentially to the formation of p-hydroxybenzophenone (especially at low temperature), while mechanism (ii) to the ortho isomer. In the case of the Bronsted-type catalysis with zeolites, shape-selectivity effects may favor the formation of the para isomer with respect to the ortho one (11,12). 

Reactant shape selectivity effects related to the dimensions of reactant molecules and catalyst pores, including restricted transition-state shape-selectivity effects as well as chemical and stereochemical selectivity. 

Whereas the acetylation of phenyl ethers over zeolite catalysts leads to the desired products, acetylation of 2-MN occurs generally at the very activated C-l position with formation of l-acetyl-2-methoxynaphthalene (l-AMN). A selectivity for l-AMN close to 100% can be obtained over silicoaluminate MCM-41 mesoporous molecular sieves[22] and FAU zeolites,133 341 whereas with other large pore zeolites with smaller pore size (BEA, MTW, ITQ-7), 2-AMN (and a small amount of l-acetyl-7-methoxynaphthalene, 3-AMN) also appears as a primary product. Average pore size zeolites, such as MFI, are much less active than large pore zeolites. These differences were related to shape selectivity effects and a great deal of research work was carried out over BEA zeolites in order to specify the origin of this shape selectivity the difference is either in the location for the formation of the bulkier (l-AMN) and linear (2-AMN) isomers (only on the outer surface for l-AMN, preferentially within the micropores for 2-AMN)[19 21 24 28 381 or more simply in the rates of desorption from the zeolite micropores.126 32 33 351... 

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