Selective enrichment of Brønsted acid site in 8-membered ring channels of MOR zeolite to enhance the catalytic reactivity of dimethyl ether carbonylation

Abstract

Directional adjusting of the distribution of Brønsted acid site (BAS) in zeolite to control its catalytic performance is highly attractive but remains challenging. This study aims to tailor the distribution of BAS in 8-membered ring (B8-MR) of H-Mordenite (HMOR) by adding aniline or p-phenylenediamine as additives to the sol‐gel. The results reveal that the number of B8-MR is significantly increased but with a slight change in the number of BAS in 12-membered ring channels. When using dimethyl ether (DME) carbonylation as the probe reaction, the conversion of DME to methyl acetate over the synthesized HMOR zeolite is increased by nearly 2 times. Our finding not only provides a facile strategy to regulate the acid distribution in different channels of the HMOR zeolite but also offers a promising candidate for the catalytic DME carbonylation, which is a critical intermediate step for ethanol synthesis from syngas.