Abstrakt
A new germanosilicate structural analogue of AFI zeolite (Ge-AFI) was hydrothermally synthesized. One- and two-step alumination of the Ge-AFI zeolites were used to modify their structure and acidic properties traced using XRD, N-2 adsorption, ICP-OES, Al-27 NMR, and FTIR spectroscopy.
Two-step aluminated sample (deGe-Al-AFI) provided a higher Al content, stronger acid sites and a higher micropore volume than one-step aluminated sample (Al-AFI). Extensive evaluation of the catalytic performance of these AFI zeolites compared with reference conventional zeolite catalysts for alkylation of toluene with isopropyl alcohol showed that deGe-Al-AFI exhibited relatively high toluene conversion and selectivity to valuable p-cymene due to the optimized textural and acidic properties.