Synthesis of hierarchical ZSM-5 using glucose as a templating precursor

Abstract

Various hierarchical ZSM-5 materials have been synthesized by adopting a novel concept using glucose as a precursor for the structure directing agent through a steam-assisted crystallization (SAC) process. The effect of the glucose/TEOS weight ratio was studied, and materials exhibiting different properties such as surface area, porosity and acidity were obtained by varying the concentration of glucose in the initial synthesis mixture. All the samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, TPD, and N₂ adsorption–desorption and were studied for their performance towards the tertiary butylation of phenol reaction. The activities of all the hierarchical ZSM-5 materials synthesized by the present method were observed to be higher than that of the conventional ZSM-5. The optimal production of 2,4-di-tertiary butyl phenol over hierarchical ZSM-5 occurred at a reaction temperature of 150 °C after 7 h reaction time under solvent free conditions.