Surface methoxy species bound to an extra-framework Al (SMS-EFAL) was unambiguously identified by advanced 13 C-{27 Al} double-resonance solid-state NMR technique in the methanol-to-olefins reaction on H-ZSM-5 zeolite. The high reactivity of the SMS-EFAL leads to the formation of surface ethoxy species and ethanol as the key intermediates for ethene generation in the early reaction stage. A direct route for the initial C-C bond formation in ethene was proposed and corroborated by density functional theory calculations.
Keywords: C−C bonds; aluminum; methanol conversion; solid-state NMR; zeolites.
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