Development of mesoporous ZSM-5 zeolite with microporosity preservation through induced desilication

Alkali treatment is a widely used strategy to create mesopores for microporous zeolites to decrease the diffusion limitation in micropores. However, many of the micropore losses existed due to the uncontrollable destruction of framework. In this paper, a series of mesoporous ZSM-5 with well-maintained micropores was synthesized through induced desilication strategy. To induce the diffusion of alkali solution for the homogenizing desilication and mesopore formation, abundant and uniform small mesopores were firstly built for ZSM-5 by protective desilication in tetrapropylammonium hydroxide solution. The pore structure and acidity of the obtained ZSM-5 were characterized by XRD, TEM, N2 physisorption, NH3-TPD and Py-IR. Through induced desilication, the external surface area of obtained ZSM-5 increased from 42 m2 g−1 of parent ZSM-5 to 148 m2 g−1 and only 17% of micropore surface area was sacrificed, which was far lower than 37% of the loss in traditional NaOH treatment. Meanwhile, the strong acid sites were well preserved and the external acid sites were reduced. Compared with the sample treated by NaOH solution, the obtained catalyst exhibited higher catalytic stability and aromatics, especially PX selectivity. Good regenerated performance with long catalytic lifetime and high liquid hydrocarbon yield could also be found for the obtained catalyst. The strategy proposed in this paper is simple and ingenious in tailoring the porosity since it only relies on the desilication method, which is different from the usual coupling of dealumination and desilication.