Seed-assisted grinding synthesis of SAPO-34 catalyst and its prolonged catalytic lifetime in the conversion of methanol to olefins

A cost-effective route has been developed for the synthesis of nano-sized triclinic SAPO-34 zeolite via seed-assisted grinding method using lower dosage of morpholine as the sole template. The synthesis conditions including silica source, silica concentration, crystallization temperature and time were refined to obtain SAPO-34 zeolite with high phase purity and crystallinity. Particularly, seed crystals preactivated by different methods were utilized to induce the synthesis of nano-sized SAPO-34 zeolites in the subsequent study. The resultant SAPO-34 samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, N-2 physisorption and NH3-TPD techniques. It was found that the introduction of seed crystals activated by mechanical milling for 20 min and chemical etching with 0.0001 M and 0.01 M H3PO4 can not only effectively reduce the crystal size of SAPO-34 zeolites from 3-4 mu m to 500-800 nm level, but also can modify their texture and acid properties. This nano-sized SAPO-34 catalyst exhibits a remarkably prolonged catalytic lifetime in methanol to olefins (MTO) reaction in comparison to the conventional micron-sized counterpart. Analogous to solvent-free synthesis of zeolites, this seed-assisted grinding synthesis method is simpler, more efficient than conventional hydrothermal synthesis. More importantly, this method provides a new avenue for preparing superior MTO catalyst.