Direct Alkylation of Benzene at Lower Temperatures in the Liquid Phase: Catalysis by Montmorillonites as Noble-Metal-Free Solid Acids

Moe Takabatake; Masayuki Nambo; Yuichi Manaka; Ken Motokura

doi:10.1002/cplu.202000090

Direct Alkylation of Benzene at Lower Temperatures in the Liquid Phase: Catalysis by Montmorillonites as Noble-Metal-Free Solid Acids

Chempluschem. 2020 Mar;85(3):450-453. doi: 10.1002/cplu.202000090.

Authors

Moe Takabatake¹, Masayuki Nambo¹, Yuichi Manaka^{1

2}, Ken Motokura^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, School of Materials and Chemical Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, 226-8502, Japan.
² Renewable Energy Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Fukushima, 963-0298, Japan.
³ PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Saitama, 332-0012, Japan.

PMID: 32154992
DOI: 10.1002/cplu.202000090

Abstract

Alkylated benzenes are widely used as raw materials for the production of a variety of chemical compounds. Conventionally, they are obtained by the Friedel-Crafts reaction between alkyl halides and benzene. In this study, the synthesis of halogen-free alkylated benzenes was made possible by the direct alkylation of benzene with alkanes using montmorillonites as noble-metal-free solid acid catalysts. The direct alkylation of benzene with n-heptane was performed at 150 °C. Aluminum-exchanged montmorillonite showed the highest yield of the target C-7 alkylated products (Ph-C7) compared with other homogeneous and heterogeneous acid catalysts: 1.8 % conversion of benzene with 58 % selectivity in 16 h. The montmorillonite catalyst system was applied to other linear and cyclic alkanes to give the corresponding alkylated products with good selectivities.

Keywords: alkylation; benzene; heterogeneous catalysis; montmorillonite; zeolites.

Abstract

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