Organosilane surfactant-assisted synthesis of mesoporous SSZ-39 zeolite with enhanced catalytic performance in the methanol-to-olefins reaction

Abstract

SSZ-39 zeolite with AEI framework structure is a good catalyst candidate for the methanol-to-olefins (MTO) reaction. However, the diffusion limitation and coke formation often results in fast deactivation of the SSZ-39 zeolite catalyst. One solution for this challenge is to introduce mesoporosity in the SSZ-39 zeolite. Herein, we report the synthesis of mesoporous SSZ-39 zeolite using an organosilane surfactant, N,N-dimethyl-N-(3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl)octan-1-aminium chloride, as a mesopore template and N,N-dimethyl-cis-2,6-dimethylpiperidinium as a micropore template. The obtained zeolites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, N₂ sorption, scanning electron microscopy, temperature programmed desorption of ammonia, and magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance of ²⁷Al. The results show that the mesoporous SSZ-39 zeolite has high crystallinity, meso/microporosity, high surface area, cuboid morphology, and abundant acidic sites. More importantly, this mesoporous SSZ-39 zeolite exhibits enhanced catalyst lifetime in the MTO reaction due to the presence of mesoporosity for fast mass transfer, compared with a conventional SSZ-39 zeolite without mesoporosity.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

SSZ-39 zeolite / mesopores / organosilane surfactant / MTO reaction / soft template / mass transfer

References

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFC0211101), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21333009, 21703203 and 21673205).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-019-1845-9 and is accessible for authorized users.

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