Acidity Regulation for Improved Activity of Mo/HZSM-5 Catalyst in Methane Dehydroaromatization

The Mo/HZSM-5 is a widely studied bifunctional methane dehydroaromatization (MDA) catalyst, and the acid site of zeolite is essential to the reaction process. In this study, the relationship between acid site control and MDA reaction performance is investigated. The Brensted/Lewis acid sites have been toned by introducing promoters to the ZSM-5 zeolite. It shows that proper strong Brensted acid sites are con-ducive to aromatic formation, while excessive Brensted acid sites will lead to serious coke deposition. Thus, the MDA catalytic stability is further improved by passivation of partial Brensted acid sites of Mo/HZSM-5 via coating Silicalite-1 on the catalyst surface. The optimized catalyst shows 95 % aromatic selectivity at initial with only 0.06 h-1 deactivation rate constant. The surface of HZSM-5 is reconstructed after hydrothermal treatment and the surface aluminum content is reduced. Moreover, the Silicalite-1 layer is beneficial to Mo species dispersion for preventing its aggregation and stabilizing the Mo-C active sites.(c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.