Influence of nSi/nAl ratio of HY zeolite catalysts on alkylation of toluene with tert-butanol

Abstract

The highly selective synthesis of 4-tert-butyltoluene from toluene and tert-butanol over HY zeolites was performed in liquid phase. The effect of Si/Al ratio (6.3, 7.5, 11, 12) of HY zeolites on the alkylation performance was studied. The catalysts were characterized by SEM, XRD, FT-IR, and NH₃-TPD methods. With increase of Si/Al ratio, the conversion of toluene and the selectivity towards 4-tert-butyltoluene increased gradually. HY-12 was found to be more suitable for the tert-butylation of toluene. When the alkylation reaction was conducted at 180°C for 4 h using HY-12 catalyst, the conversion and the selectivity of 4-tertbutyltoluene reached 40.74 and 70.91%, respectively.