Studies on acidity and basicity and adsorption of modified Y zeolites

The acidity and basicity of alkali cation exchanged Y zeolites were investigated systematically using pyridine and pyrrole as the TPD and IR spectroscopic probe respectively. It was found that the overall Lewis basicity in the modified Y zeolites increased and the Lewis acidity in the modified Y zeolites decreased as the cation was exchanged from LiY to CsY in the alkali cation series. The adsorption of benzene, toluene and ethylbenzene on Y zeolites modified by alkali cations were also studied comparatively by IR spectroscopy and TPD. The following results were obtained: (1) The adsorption of pyridine on modified Y zeolites could also be used to characterize the acidity and basicity of alkali cation exchanged Y zeolites; (2) The C - H stretching frequencies of aromatic ring, of CH3 on the side-chain of toluene, and of - CH2 - on the side-chain of ethylbenzene shifted towards lower wavenumber as the cation was exchanged from LiY to CsY; (3) The adsorption strength and the amount of sorbed aromatics on modified Y zeolites were related to the basicity of alkali cation exchanged Y zeolites.