Effect of rare earths on n-hexane aromatization over HZSM-5 catalyst

The cracking and aromatization of n-hexane over H-ZSM-5 modified by various rare earths were investigated by means of continuous flow micro-reactor. The surface properties of modified H-ZSM-5 catalysts were obtained from IR, XRD and XPS. The results show that the rare earths enhance the aromatizing properties of the catalysts which are prepared by mechanical mixture method. The results of n-hexane cracking and aromatization. are correlated with the acidity. The Bronsted acidic sites are the active sites of n-hexane aromatization, while Lewis acid site plays an important role in n-hexane cracking.