Solid basic sites

A wide variety of solid materials are used in catalytic processes. Generally, the (surface) structure of metal and supported metal catalysts is relatively simple. For that reason, we will first focus on metal catalysts. Supported metal catalysts are produced in many forms. Often, their preparation involves impregnation or ion exchange, followed by calcination and reduction. Depending on the conditions quite different catalyst systems are produced. When crystalline sizes are not very small, typically > 5 nm, the metal crystals behave like bulk crystals with similar crystal faces. However, in catalysis smaller particles are often used. They are referred to as crystallites , aggregates , or clusters . When the dimensions are not known we will refer to them as particles . In principle, the structure of oxidic catalysts is more complex than that of metal catalysts. The surface often contains different types of active sites a combination of acid and basic sites on one catalyst is quite common. 

Another thermal analysis method available for catalyst characterization is microcalorimetiy, which is based on the measurement of the heat generated or consumed when a gas adsorbs and reacts on the surface of a solid [66-68], This information can be used, for instance, to determine the relative stability among different phases of a solid [69], Microcalorimetiy is also applicable in the measurement of the strengths and distribution of acidic or basic sites as well as for the characterization of metal-based catalysts [66-68], For instance, Figure 1.10 presents microcalorimetry data for ammonia adsorption on H-ZSM-5 and H-mordenite zeolites [70], clearly illustrating the differences in both acid strength (indicated by the different initial adsorption heats) and total number of acidic sites (measured by the total ammonia uptake) between the two catalysts. 

Although the equilibrium constant for the formation of ad-nitromethane (27) is very small, strongly basic solutions drive the equilibrium by formation of the ad-anion (28)200. When nitromethane was adsorbed on basic oxides (MgO and CaO) and zeolites (CsX), evidence for the formation of the ad-form was given by means of solid state NMR. The results indicate that nitromethane could be a much more discriminating probe than CO2 for studying basic sites in zeolites201. 

Solid-liquid phase systems with no added solvent produce esters in high yield [e.g. 2, 3] and are particularly Useful when using less reactive alkyl halides [e.g. 15], for the preparation of sterically hindered esters [16], or where other basic sites within the molecule are susceptible to alkylation, e.g. anthranilic acid is converted into the esters with minimal A-alkylation and pyridine carboxylic acids do no undergo quat-emization [17]. Excellent yields of the esters in very short reaction times (2-7 minutes) are also obtained when the two-phase system is subjected to microwave irradiation [18]. Direct reaction of the carboxylic acids with 1,2-dichloroethane under reflux yields the chloroethyl ester [19], although generally higher yields of the esters are obtained under microwave conditions [20]. 

As has been mentioned previously, one is most likely to find analogies to catalytic reactions on solids with acidic and/or basic sites in noncatalytic homogeneous reactions, and therefore the application of established LFERs is safest in this field. Also the interpretation of slopes is without great difficulty and more fruitful than with other types of catalysts. The structure effects on rate have been measured most frequently on elimination reactions, that is, on dehydration of alcohols, dehydrohalogenation of alkyl halides, deamination of amines, cracking of the C—C bond, etc. Less attention has been paid to substitution, addition, and other reactions. 

Lewis acids have served as catalysts in numerous fields of organic synthesis. By temporary coordination to basic sites substrates can be activated resulting in enhanced reaction rates. Immobilization of Lewis acids to a solid support has been carried out in order to overcome work-up problems, for complexing ligands or for generating distinct reaction environments. 

Ammonia and pyridine are frequently used as probe molecules for the characterization of acidic surfaces, but they also adsorb on strongly basic sites. Tsyganenko et al. (54) proposed various species resulting from NH3 adsorption on basic solids (Scheme 1). The formation of species I corresponds to hydrogen bonding to a basic surface oxygen, and species II, formed by dissociation to give NH2 and hydroxyl species, involves an acid-base site. Such adsorption requires... 

In general, spectroscopic techniques and, in particular IR spectroscopy of adsorbed probe molecules such as the ones mentioned above, provide information about the nature of the basic sites on oxide surfaces. However, they do not give information about the number and strength distribution of the basic sites on a solid... 

Although the specific role of each type of center (acid or base) in each process (dehydration-dehydrogenation) is still only incompletely elucidated, many authors have correlated the initial rates of dehydration and dehydrogenation with the acidity and basicity, respectively, of the solid. Thus, the number of basic sites has been correlated with the rate constants for dehydrogenation or with the ratio of the rate constants for dehydrogenation and dehydration (74,80,89,90,94). 

Isomerization of jS-isophorone to a-isophorone has been represented as a model reaction for the characterization of solid bases 106,107). The reaction involves the loss of a hydrogen atom from the position a to the carbonyl group, giving an allylic carbanion stabilized by conjugation, which can isomerize to a species corresponding to the carbanion of a-isophorone (Scheme 9). In this reaction, zero-order kinetics has been observed at 308 K for many bases, and consequently the initial rate of the reaction is equal to the rate constant. The rate of isomerization has been used to measure the total number of active sites on a series of solid bases. Figueras et al. (106,107) showed that the number of basic sites determined by CO2 adsorption on various calcined double-layered hydroxides was proportional to the rate constants for S-isophorone isomerization (Fig. 3), confirming that the reaction can be used as a useful tool for the determination of acid-base characteristics of oxide catalysts. 

Recently, the influence of the preparation method of various MgO samples on their catalytic activity in the MPV reaction of cyclohexanone with 2-propanol has been reported 202). The oxides were prepared by various synthetic procedures including calcination of commercially available magnesium hydroxide and magnesium carbonate calcination of magnesium hydroxides obtained from magnesium nitrate and magnesium sulfate sol-gel synthesis and precipitation by decomposition of urea. It was concluded that the efficiency of the catalytic hydrogen transfer process was directly related to the number of basic sites in the solid. Thus, the MgO (MgO-2 sample in Table IV) prepared by hydration and subsequent calcination of a MgO sample that had been obtained from commercially available Mg(OH)2 was the most basic and the most active for the MPV process, and the MgO samples with similar populations of basic sites exhibited similar activities (Table IV). 

According to the Lewis theory, alkaline earth metal hydroxides are weaker bases than their oxides, the order of the strength of the basic sites being Ba(OH)2> SrO(OH)2 > Ca(OH)2 > Mg(OH)2. The hydroxides have been used recently as solid catalysts for organic transformations, such as the conjugate addition of methanol to a, S-unsaturated carbonyl compounds (12), cyanoethylation of alcohols (163,164), and transesterification reactions (166,167,171,172) which are described above. The extensive work of Sinisterra et al. (282) on the number and nature of sites and on the catalytic activity of the most basic alkali metal hydroxide, Ba(OH)2, is emphasized. It was found that commercial barium hydroxide octahydrate can be converted into... 

On solids, the amount and strength of acid or basic sites are quite independent parameters, so both of them must be analyzed independently for a complete characterization. Additionally, several different families of acid sites may occur in the same solid surface, so their distribution must be characterized. The key to the effective utilization of microcalorimetry in heterogeneous catalysis is the judicious choice of gas-phase molecules for study. 

The snrface acid-base properties of supported oxides can be conveniently investigated by studying the adsorption of suitably chosen basic-acidic probe molecules on the solid. As shown, acidic and basic sites are often present simultaneously on solid surfaces. The knowledge of the detailed amphoteric character of supported metal oxides is of extreme interest due to the possibility of using them as catalysts in different reactions in which acidity governs the reaction mechanism. 

The oxonium ylide mechanism requires a bifunctional acid-base catalyst. The validity of the oxonium ylide mechanism on zeolites was questioned459,461,464 because zeolites do not necessarily possess sufficiently strong basic sites to abstract a proton from the trimethyloxonium ion to form an ylide. It should, however, be pointed out, as emphasized by Olah,447,465 that over solid acid-base catalysts (including zeolites) the initial coordination of an electron-deficient (i.e., Lewis acidic) site of the catalysts allows formation of a catalyst-coordinated dimethyl ether complex. It then can act as an oxonium ion forming the catalyst-coordinated oxonium ylide complex (10) with the participation of surface bound CH30 ions ... 

The El mechanism has, as the rate-determining step in solution, the ionisation of the reactant forming a carbonium ion which then decomposes rapidly. For heterogeneous catalytic reactions, the important features are the occurrence of the reaction in two steps and the presence on the solid surface of carbonium ions or species resembling them closely. Again, the kinetic characterisation by way of an unimolecular process is of little value. Even the relative rates of the two steps may be reversed on solid catalysts. A cooperation of an acidic and a basic site is also assumed, the reaction being initiated by the action of the acidic site on the group X. 

Microcrystalline solids such as zeolites and zeolite like structures have shown the utility of those properties in the domain of acid catalysis. However, little is known on their possibilities as base catalysts. It has been shown [ref. 1,2] that zeolites have basic sites which are able to catalyze reactions needing weak and medium basic strengths. Moreover, a correlation between the basicity and the Sanderson s average electronegativity Df the framework has been observed [ref. 3], Then, their activity as base catalysts can be modified by changing the countercation [ref. 4], the framework Si/Al ratio, or by introducing atoms other than Si and Al in the framework [ref. 5],... 

The results in Table 2 show that the pyridine is less active than any of the X zeolites and Ge faujasite except the lithium form which shows slightly lower activity, whereas all Y zeolites show lower activity than pyridine. Piperidine, however, is more active than any of the zeolite samples studied here. From this comparison, it appears that, most of the basic sites of the zeolites must have pK<10.3. However, the fact that zeolites are also active for catalyzing the condensation of benzaldehyde with ethyl malonate, indicate that these samples have some basic sites with pK< 13.3. On a quantitative bases, and comparing the activity of zeolites for condensation with ethyl cyanoacetate, ethyl acetoacetate and ethyl malonate (Fig. 2), we can conclude that most of the basic sites of the zeolite have pK<9.0 with a sensible amount with 9.0basic strength of different solid base catalysts. 

The minute quantity of adsorbate remaining on the column after weakly bound probe has desorbed is chemisorbed to strongly acidic or basic sites on the substrate. The desorption profile obtained by ramping the column temperature is an index of the range of effective bond strength between the solid and adsorbed vapor. The flame ionization detector also registers desorption of adventitious organic contaminants polytherms with no probe on the column must be obtained separately so that sorbate and contaminant desorption can be deconvolved. 

Since solid acid catalysts are used extensively in chemical industry, particularly in the petroleum field, a reliable method for measuring the acidity of solids would be extremely useful. The main difficulty to start with is that the activity coefficients for solid species are unknown and thus no thermodynamic acidity function can be properly defined. On the other hand, because the solid by definition is heterogeneous, acidic and basic sites can coexist with variable strength. The surface area available for colorimetric determinations may have widely different acidic properties from the bulk material this is especially true for well-structured solids like zeolites. It is also not possible to establish a true acid-base equilibrium. 

As nonthermal plasma is a mixture of electrons, highly excited atoms and molecules, ions, radicals, photons, and so on, its chemistry is extremely complex, and highly selective products should not be expected via plasma chemistry. The basic reactions for controlling both the direction and reaction rate of plasma C02 utilization can be summarized as follows (here, A and B represent atoms, A2 and B2 molecules, e represents an electron, M is a temporary collision partner, and S represents a solid surface site. The excited species is indicated by an asterisk). 

Some very important surface properties of solids can be properly characterized only by certain wet chemical techniques, some of which are currently under rapid improvement. Studies of adsorption from solution allow determination of the surface density of adsorbing sites, and the characterization of the surface forces involved (the energy of dispersion forces, the strength of acidic or basic sites and the surface density of coul-ombic charge). Adsorption studies can now be extended with some newer spectroscopic tools (Fourier-transform infra-red spectroscopy, laser Raman spectroscopy, and solid NMR spectroscopy), as well as convenient modern versions of older techniques (Doppler electrophoresis, flow microcalorimetry, and automated ellipsometry). 

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