Mesoporous Aluminosilicate Catalysts for the Selective Isomerization of n-Hexane: The Roles of Surface Acidity and Platinum Metal

Nathan Musselwhite; Kyungsu Na; Kairat Sabyrov; Selim Alayoglu; Gabor A Somorjai

doi:10.1021/jacs.5b04808

Mesoporous Aluminosilicate Catalysts for the Selective Isomerization of n-Hexane: The Roles of Surface Acidity and Platinum Metal

J Am Chem Soc. 2015 Aug 19;137(32):10231-7. doi: 10.1021/jacs.5b04808. Epub 2015 Aug 6.

Authors

Nathan Musselwhite^{1

2}, Kyungsu Na^{1

2

3}, Kairat Sabyrov^{1

2}, Selim Alayoglu², Gabor A Somorjai^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ †Department of Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
² ‡Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
³ §Department of Chemistry, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, 500-757, South Korea.

PMID: 26168190
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b04808

Abstract

Several types of mesoporous aluminosilicates were synthesized and evaluated in the catalytic isomerization of n-hexane, both with and without Pt nanoparticles loaded into the mesopores. The materials investigated included mesoporous MFI and BEA type zeolites, MCF-17 mesoporous silica, and an aluminum modified MCF-17. The acidity of the materials was investigated through pyridine adsorption and Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). It was found that the strong Brönsted acid sites in the micropores of the zeolite catalysts facilitated the cracking of hexane. However, the medium strength acid sites on the Al modified MCF-17 mesoporous silica greatly enhanced the isomerization reaction. Through the loading of different amounts of Pt into the mesopores of the Al modified MCF-17, the relationship between the metal nanoparticles and acidic sites on the support was revealed.