Synthesis and scale-up of ZSM-5 aggregates with hierarchical structure

Abstract

ZSM-5 aggregates with hierarchical structure have been synthesized and scaled up by using colloidal S-1 as seed, without employing any organic templates. All the synthesized samples show ball-like aggregated morphologies, and the aggregates were composed of primary zeolite crystals. The seed plays an important role to the formation of ZSM-5 aggregates consisting of primary crystals, and changing the amount of seeds can adjust the crystal size of the ZSM-5 aggregates and primary crystals. The obtained ZSM-5 aggregates are nanosized, possessing a large mesopore volume and external surface area. After modification without calcination, the prepared ZSM-5 aggregates were used for the hydration of cyclohexene to cyclohexanol, exhibiting high catalytic performances, and the highest yield of cyclohexanol reaches 9.13%. When scaled-up from 100 mL to 2 and 5 L, the catalytic performance of ZSM-5 has a good reproducibility, and has great potential feasibility of scaling-up in industrial processes. The hierarchical ZSM-5 aggregates exhibit an excellent catalytic performance to the hydration of cyclohexene to cyclohexanol, which have great potential feasibility of scaling up in industrial processes.