Mesopore wall-catalyzed Friedel-Crafts acylation of bulky aromatic compounds in MFI zeolite nanosponge

Abstract

We investigated the effects of mesopore generation in a MFI zeolite when used as a catalyst in liquid-phaseFriedel.Crafts acylation reactions of bulky aromatic compounds. For this investigation, we obtained anMFI zeolite with nanosponge morphology, following a seed-assisted hydrothermal synthesis route usingC22H45.N+(CH3)2.C6H12.N+(CH3)2.C6H13. The zeolite nanosponge exhibited a narrow distribution ofmesopore diameters centered at 4 nm, in which the mesopores were built with a disordered networkof 2.5-nm thick MFI zeolite layers. This zeolite exhibited high catalytic performance in various acylationreactions, compared with bulk MFI zeolites, beta zeolite and mesoporous materials composed of amor-phous aluminosilicates. The high catalytic performance corresponded to the strong Bronsted acid sitesexisting on the mesopore walls. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved