Styrene from toluene by side chain alkylation over a novel solid acid-base catalyst

Abstract

A novel solid acid-base catalyst with aluminum and nitrogen were prepared from aluminum and amine by using triblock copolymer Pluronic F127 as a template and resol as framework via evaporation induced organic–organic assembly method. The catalyst was characterized by UV–vis absorption spectra (UV–vis), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), the acid-base properties of the catalyst were determined by temperature programmed desorption (TPD) using CO 2 and NH 3 as probe molecules, and the side chain alkylation of toluene with methanol over the catalyst has been investigated. The results show that Cat–NH(C 2H 5) 2 demonstrates the higher activity and selectivity, styrene yield reaches 44.9% and selectivity 97.6%. It is considered that the strength of base and distance of the specific surface acid-base pairs over the catalysts are favored to bimolecular side-chain alkylation reaction.