Ravi Manoj, Sushkevich Vitaly L, van Bokhoven Jeroen A
Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich 8093 Zurich Switzerland
Laboratory for Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute Villigen 5232 Switzerland.
Chem Sci. 2021 Jan 26;12(11):4094-4103. doi: 10.1039/d0sc06130a.
Lewis acidic aluminum in zeolites, particularly acidity that is inherent to the framework, is an indeterminate concept. A fraction of framework aluminum changes geometry to octahedral coordination in the proton form of zeolite mordenite. Such octahedrally coordinated aluminum is the precursor of a Lewis acid site and its formation is accompanied by a loss in Brønsted acidity. Herein, we show that such Lewis acid sites have a preferred location in the pore structure of mordenite. A greater proportion of these Lewis acid sites resides in the side-pockets than in the main channel. By reverting the octahedrally coordinated aluminum back to a tetrahedral geometry, the corresponding Brønsted acid sites are restored with a concomitant loss in the ability to form Lewis acid sites. Thereby, reversible octahedral-tetrahedral aluminum coordination provides a means to indirectly switch between Lewis and Brønsted acidity. This phenomenon is unique to Lewis acidity that is inherent to the framework, thereby distinguishing it from Lewis acidity originating from extra-framework species. Furthermore, the transformation of framework aluminum into octahedral coordination is decoupled from the generation of distorted tetrahedrally coordinated aluminum, where the latter gives rise to the IR band at 3660 cm in the OH stretching region.
沸石中的路易斯酸性铝,特别是骨架固有的酸性,是一个不确定的概念。在丝光沸石的质子形式中,一部分骨架铝会改变几何结构成为八面体配位。这种八面体配位的铝是路易斯酸位点的前体,其形成伴随着布朗斯特酸性的损失。在此,我们表明这种路易斯酸位点在丝光沸石的孔结构中有一个优先位置。这些路易斯酸位点在侧袋中的比例比在主通道中更大。通过将八面体配位的铝恢复为四面体几何结构,相应的布朗斯特酸位点得以恢复,同时形成路易斯酸位点的能力丧失。因此,可逆的八面体 - 四面体铝配位提供了一种在路易斯酸性和布朗斯特酸性之间间接切换的方法。这种现象是骨架固有的路易斯酸性所特有的,从而将其与源自骨架外物种的路易斯酸性区分开来。此外,骨架铝向八面体配位的转变与扭曲的四面体配位铝的产生解耦,后者在OH伸缩区域产生3660 cm的红外波段。