Abstract
The impact of particle size and internal grain boundaries of Beta zeolites was investigated in n-pentane isomerization over bifunctional Pt/Beta catalysts, by comparing the catalytic performance of four as-synthesized Pt/Beta samples that possess an identical Pt loading (0.5 wt%), but use four distinct Beta zeolites. Three of them contain polycrystalline zeolites, consisting of nano-sized crystals with a similar size of 9–13 nm, but having different average particle sizes (i.e., 1340, 830, and 250 nm) and numerous internal grain boundaries, as found via high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The last catalyst contains single-crystalline zeolite, with an average particle size of 225 nm, and no observed internal grain boundaries. At low reaction temperature (<578 K), the particle size and internal grain boundaries do not change the apparent activity, because activity is controlled by reaction on the acid sites of the zeolite. At high reaction temperature (>614 K), a large particle size and the presence of internal grain boundaries significantly reduce the apparent activity, because of the extended diffusion path and additional diffusion barriers, which are probably caused by a mismatch in micropore alignment and gas-zeolite interfaces at these grain boundaries. Due to the small particle size and absence of internal grain boundaries, the observed activity for single-crystalline Beta can be 60–212% higher than for polycrystalline counterparts, even though it possesses a much weaker intrinsic acidity. This shows, remarkably, that single-crystalline zeolites with less internal grain boundaries can achieve a much higher catalytic activity.
Highlights
Branched alkanes are becoming the most favorable gasoline component, due to their high octane number and environmental friendliness when comparing to olefins and aromatics [1–5]
The n-alkanes are dehydrogenated into alkenes on Pt sites; subsequently, the alkenes are protonated on acid sites to yield alkylcarbenium ions that undergo CAC bond rearrangement and/or b-scission followed by de-protonation, yielding alkenes; the product alkenes are hydrogenated on Pt sites, yielding branched alkanes [10,11]
The effects of zeolite particle size and internal grain boundaries were probed in n-pentane isomerization over assynthesized Pt/Beta catalysts with different Beta zeolite morphologies
Summary
Branched alkanes are becoming the most favorable gasoline component, due to their high octane number and environmental friendliness when comparing to olefins and aromatics [1–5]. The change of zeolite particle size is often accompanied by the change of other structural parameters, such as the intercrystalline pore size distribution, and acidity; reaction temperature plays an important role in affecting the coupled diffusionreaction process in zeolites These factors may complicate the effects of zeolite particle size on the catalytic performance of Pt/ zeolites for n-alkanes isomerization, especially at different reaction temperatures, and these effects have not been reported in the literature, to the best of our knowledge. Their structure, texture, morphology, and acidity were characterized by XRD, SEM, HRTEM, N2 sorption, ICP-AES, NH3TPD, and Py-IR By comparing their catalytic performance for n-pentane isomerization, the effects of zeolite particle size and internal grain boundaries were determined
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