Catalytic dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether over micro-mesoporous ZSM-5/MCM-41 composite molecular sieves

Qiang Tang, Hang Xu*, Yanyan Zheng, Jinfu Wang, Hansheng Li, Jun Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

117 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A series of micro-mesoporous ZSM-5/MCM-41 composite molecular sieves were prepared by combining a microporous zeolite silica source with nano self-assembly methods, and characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, N 2 adsorption and desorption, TPD of ammonia, and their catalytic performance for the dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether (DME) in a fixed bed microreactor at atmospheric pressure. Among these catalysts, the ZSM-5/MCM-41 sample alkali-treated with 1.5 mol/L NaOH solution, in which the relative crystallinity of ZSM-5 and MCM-41 are 54.5% and 30.5%, respectively, gave the best activity (X MeOH > 80%) with 100% selectivity and a long lifetime in a wide range of temperature from 190 °C to 300 °C. From the characterization and activity data, the formation mechanism of the micro-mesoporous composite molecular sieves was proposed to be a liquid-crystal templating mechanism.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)36-42
Number of pages7
JournalApplied Catalysis A: General
Volume413-414
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Jan 2012

Keywords

  • Composite molecular sieves
  • Dehydration
  • Dimethyl ether
  • Methanol
  • Micro-mesoporous

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