Synthesis of Ti-MWW Zeolite by Refluxing and Implanting Titanium Method and Further Application in 1-Hexene Epoxidation

The efficient and economic heteroatom-implanting method for MWW-type zeolite has been the focus of attention and needs further exploration. Ti incorporated MWW zeolite was synthesized by sequential treatment of boron-containing zeolite precursor. The catalysts were applied to the epoxidation of 1-hexene. The implanting titanium process was conducted under a mild condition with Ti(SO 4 ) 2 /NH 4 HF 2 /HNO 3 solution, and the product Ti-MWW precursors have framework titanium alone, the novel method is named as refluxing and implanting titanium method which integrates acid treatment and titanium incorporation into one step and reduces the consumption of time of this process into 1 h. A density functional theory was conducted to explain the formation mechanism of interlayer-expanded structure of Ti-MWW zeolite. Subsequently, Ti-MWW precursors were treated in modified reagent solution to obtain larger pore structure, which increase the conversion of 1-hexene from 20.45 to 62.96%. The catalytic performance of Ti-MWW zeolite in this work are superior to Ti-MWW zeolite synthesized by traditional dry-gel conversion method the conversion of 1-hexene of which was 4.2%. This novel method is a promising approach for the synthesis of high catalytic performance heteroatomic zeolite. Graphical abstract