Sustainable one-pot preparation of fully crystalline shaped zeolite catalysts

Abstract

Sustainable one-pot preparation of fully crystalline shaped zeolite catalysts is attractive for industrial applications but still challenging. Herein, for the first time, we show a one-pot preparation of fully crystalline shaped zeolite catalysts with MFI, TON, and MTT structures from a shaped precursor by crystallization via zeolite seeding and ethanol filling. As a typical example, a fully crystalline shaped ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst with a Si/Al ratio of 151 in the final product is well characterized by SEM, XRD, MAS NMR, particle strength analysis, N₂ sorption, and XPS techniques, showing uniform crystals, high crystallinity, four-coordinated aluminum species, good mechanical strength, high surface area, and a core-shell structure. Very interestingly, catalytic tests in the methanol-to-propylene (MTP) reaction demonstrate that the fully crystalline shaped ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst has a much longer lifetime than that of the conventional one. Compared with the conventional preparation of shaped zeolite catalysts, this work has obvious advantages such as low-cost, environmentally friendly, simple, and fully crystalline features. These sustainable advantages plus the excellent catalytic performance should be of significant importance for the applications of these shaped zeolite catalysts in industrial processes.