Preparation of β zeolite with intracrystalline mesoporosity via surfactant -templating strategy and its application in ethanol-acetaldehyde to butadiene

The conversion of ethanol to butadiene catalyzed by modified β zeolites has attracted wide attention. The construction of intracrystalline mesoporosity in β zeolite is a challenging way to improve the catalytic activity. In this work, a surfactant-template strategy was used to construct intracrystalline mesoporosity successfully in the alkali treatment of β zeolite using long-chain quaternary ammonium salt with different alkyl chain length (C10~C16) as the template. The intracrystalline pore size can be adjusted by varying the surfactant alkyl chain length (C10~C16) (1.9–3.4 nm). To get more information about this process, CTAB was chosen as the template in further investigations. The mesoporosity can be generated within 1 h. The BET surface area can reach up to 600 m 2 /g while the pore volume can reach up to 0.568 cm 3 /g, which are 1.23 and 1.5 times that of the parent zeolite, respectively. The template action of CTA + is essential for forming mesoporosity, and CTA + interacts with the zeolite during the alkali treatment process, protects the zeolite framework from being etched, and does not form a separated mesoporous phase. To demonstrate the effect of intracrystalline mesoporosity on the catalytic performance, Zr-β zeolite was prepared and used as the catalyst for ethanol-acetaldehyde conversion. The hierarchical Zr-β zeolite was prepared using a dealumination-metallization strategy, and both the zeolite crystallinity and the mesoporosity were preserved in this process. The total conversion increased by 10%, while the BD selectivity was well maintained. The catalytic performance showed that the introduction of mesoporosity effectively mitigated decreasing conversion while preserving BD selectivity.