Study by NMR of Liquid-Phase Alkylation of Toluene with Hex-1-ene: Effect of Catalyst on Selectivity

In this work, the selectivity of different solid catalysts in the alkylation reaction of toluene with hex-1-ene has been studied in order to maximize mono-alkylated products. The reaction has been carried out in a fixed-bed reactor, at 120°C. An industrial alkylation catalyst has been used as a reference along with three commercial acid zeolites with difference structures (faujasite, mordenite and beta). All of catalysts achieved total conversion. Mono-alkyltoluenes selectivity was higher than 95% in all cases and formation of di-alkyltoluenes was less than 4.5%. The main products, mono-alkyltoluenes, were identified by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy. This work analyses the effect of physicochemical and structural properties of solid catalysts on the selectivity to the different alkylation products.