Physical characterization of the state of motion of the phenalenyl spin probe in cation-exchanged faujasite zeolite supercages with pulsed EPR

Abstract

The molecular motion of the phenalenyl (PNL) spin probe in the supercages of cation-exchanged X and Y zeolites (faujasites) has been physically characterized by pulsed and continuous wave (CW) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). Both X and Y zeolites, whose cation sites were exchanged with the alkali metal ions, Li +, Na +, K +, Rb + and Cs + were examined. There is a good correspondence between the temperature dependences of the PNL electron spin phase memory time and the CW EPR spectra. Both display evidence of a thermal activation from a stationary, non-rotating molecular state to a low-temperature state of in-plane rotation (Das et al., Chem Phys. 143 (1990) 253). The rate of in-plane rotation is an activated process, with E* | / R=1289 |+- 35 K and 1462 ± 47 K in NaX and KX zeolites, respectively. The rotation appears to be about an axis along which the half-filled, non-bonding π orbital interacts with the exchanged cation in the supercage. Both CW and pulsed EPR also show a higher temperature activation from the in-plane rotating state to an effectively isoptropic state of rotation of PNL in which the PNL-cation bond is thought to be broken, with E* ⊥ / R=2050 ± 110 K, 1956 ± 46K, 1335 ± 97 K in LiX, NaX and KX zeolites, respectively. The strength of the PNL-cation bonding decreases with increasing cation atomic number as indicated by E* ⊥ and the peripheral repulsion (crowding) of PNL increases with cation size as indicated E* |. There are qualitative indications that the binding of PNL to the cations in the Y zeolite is stronger than in the X zeolite.