Isopropylation of Ethyl Benzene Using MCM-41 and Metals Substituted MCM-41

Abstract

Mesoporous MCM-41, Al-MCM-41, Fe-MCM-41, Mg-MCM-41 and Mn-MCM-41 were synthesized by hydrothermal process for catalytic applications. Tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide was used as the structure directing template. Sodium silicate and salts of aluminium, iron, magnesium and manganese were the sources of silicon, aluminium, iron, magnesium and manganese, respectively. All the synthesised materials were characterised by BET, XRD and FTIR techniques. The XRD patterns of all the samples showed an intense signal at an angle of about 2º (2q) due to (100) plane of hexagonal mesophase. The patterns due to other planes were less intense. BET surface area of all the materials were in the range from 772-1273 m²/g and the pore diameter varies from 2.546-2.663 nm. The catalytic performance of these materials has been tested for isopropylation of ethyl benzene. The influence of temperature, feed ratio and weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) were studied for all the aforesaid reactions for maximum conversion and product selectivity. In addition to p-isopropylethylbenzene, a commercially valuable compound diisopropyl ether was also obtained from isopropyl alcohol.