Abstract

Adsorption of basic probe molecules is one of the widely used methods to characterize the acid strength of solid acids. In this contribution, the adsorptions of acetone on various Brønsted and Lewis acid sites (from weak acid to superacid) are theoretically studied, in order to elucidate the quantitative relationships between 13C chemical shifts of acetone and intrinsic acid strength of solid acids. The Brønsted acid sites are represented by a series of 8T zeolite models with varying terminal Si−H bond lengths, and the different extents of acidic proton transfer from these acid sites to acetone are revealed explicitly. We found that three adsorption conformations (hydrogen-bonded, proton-shared, and ion-pair) exist for acetone, and concurrently, a correlation of three-broken lines is obtained for the 13C chemical shift of acetone versus the deprotonation energy (DPE). The correlation can be used as a scale for quantitatively measuring the Brønsted acid strength of solid acids. A threshold of 245 ppm is determined for superacidity, in good agreement with the experimental value (244 ppm). The Lewis acid sites are modeled by tricoordinate framework aluminum species and various extra-framework aluminum cations or neutral species such as Al3+, AlO+, AlOH2+, Al(OH)2+, Al(OH)3, and AlOOH. We found that acetone is coordinately adsorbed on the aluminum atoms of Lewis acid sites and that the 13C chemical shift of acetone is almost linear to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy of the acid sites.

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