Mechanistic insights into aqueous phase propanol dehydration in H-ZSM-5 zeolite
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate & Institute for Integrated Catalysis, Richland WA 99352
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate & Institute for Integrated Catalysis, Richland WA 99352; Dept. of Chemistry and Catalysis Research Institute, TU München, Lichtenbergstrasse 4 Garching 85748 Germany
Aqueous phase dehydration of 1-propanol over H-ZSM-5 zeolite was investigated using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The water molecules in the zeolite pores prefer to aggregate via the hydrogen bonding network and be protonated at the Brønsted acidic sites (BAS). Two typical configurations, i.e., dispersed and clustered, of water molecules were identified by ab initio molecular dynamics simulation of the mimicking aqueous phase H-ZSM-5 zeolite unit cell with 20 water molecules per unit cell. DFT calculated Gibbs free energies suggest that the dimeric propanol-propanol, the propanol-water complex, and the trimeric propanol-propanol-water are formed at high propanol concentrations, which provide a kinetically feasible dehydration reaction channel of 1-propanol to propene. However, calculation results also indicate that the propanol dehydration via the unimolecular mechanism becomes kinetically discouraged due to the enhanced stability of the protonated dimeric propanol and the protonated water cluster acting as the BAS site for alcohol dehydration reaction. This work was supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a multiprogram national laboratory operated for DOE by Battelle. Computing time was granted by the grand challenge of computational catalysis of the William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL). EMSL is a national scientific user facility located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and sponsored by DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab. (EMSL)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1339800
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-117505; 48810; KC0302010
- Journal Information:
- AIChE Journal, Vol. 63, Issue 1; ISSN 0001-1541
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Chemical Engineers
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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