3.1. Catalysts characterization
Figure 1 shows the XRD patterns of the prepared catalysts. The typical peaks of the MCM-48 are seen at 2θ = 2.9° is related to the d211 diffraction of the MCM-48 cubic phase and peak at 2θ = 3.4° demonstrates the d220 reflection [22, 23]. The Mordenite structure shows sharp peaks in the range of 9–36°, correspond to the reflections of Mordenite zeolite. The diffraction peaks at 9.77°, 13.46°, 19.62°, 22.20°, 23.17°, 25.64°, 26.25°, 27.67°, 27.85°, 30.89° and 35.61°, indicating that the Mordenite zeolite was successfully synthesized [24, 25]. Meanwhile, XRD patterns show no signals of zirconia, platinum and aluminum metals, probably because of homogeneous dispersion of these metallic phases in the framework of synthesized catalysts. Although the existence of these metals has been checked by XRF test.
The FTIR spectra for synthesized catalysts are presented in Fig. 2. The FTIR spectra of the MCM-48-Mordenite and other composites present the bands at 1639 and 3400 cm− 1, indicating the presence of physisorbed water. The characterization bands of MCM-48 are seen at 1234 and 1080 cm− 1, which are assigned to vas(Si-O-Si). Also, the absorption bands at 460 cm− 1 and 810 cm− 1 are usually belonged to δ(Si–O–Si) and vs(Si–O–Si) [26]. The FT-IR spectra of Mordenite zeolite exhibit the bands at 1080 cm− 1 (asymmetric stretching vibration of Si-O bond), 810 cm− 1 (symmetric stretching vibration of Al-O bond), 580 cm− 1 (vibration of five-membered rings), and 450 cm− 1 (T–O bending) [24]. In addition, no absorption band corresponding to aluminum and zirconium phase was found in FTIR spectra, this fact also confirms a good dispersion of aluminum and zirconium.
UV-vis diffuse reflection spectra of samples are shown in Fig. 3. This analysis was used to distinguish the chemical structure of Pt. The band near 250 nm is a charge transfer (CT) band (oxygen to the metal) and can be seen in all spectra. Also, the weak shoulder at above 350 nm must be due to a d-d transition band of Pt2+ species [27]. The observed shifts in the intensities of these peaks may be due to the diversity in the interaction strength of species and their population on the supports.
The acidity distributions on the surface of the prepared catalysts are listed in Table 1.
Table 1
Physicochemical properties of Pt synthesized catalysts denoted as: M: Mordenite, MM: MCM-48-Mordenite, ZM: Zr-MCM-48, ZMM: Zr-MCM-48-Mordenite, AM: Al-MCM-48, and AMM: Al-MCM-48-Mordenite.
Catalysts | M | MM | ZM | ZMM | AM | AMM |
Acidity (µmol NH3/g) |
L | 307.6 | 245.6 | 57.2 | 283.3 | 86.1 | 231.2 |
B | 264.5 | 120.7 | 115.8 | 256.4 | 110.7 | 321.7 |
L + B | 572.1 | 366.3 | 173.0 | 539.7 | 196.8 | 552.9 |
B/L | 0.9 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 1.4 |
Surface properties |
SBET (m2/g) | 341.1 | 398.2 | 458.4 | 158.8 | 771.9 | 378.2 |
Vp (cm3/g) | 0.28 | 0.71 | 0.25 | 0.16 | 0.67 | 0.59 |
dp (nm) | 3.3 | 3.4 | 2.2 | 4.1 | 3.5 | 5.3 |
Figure 4 also shows the acid sites distributions for the calcined catalysts, which are determined by NH3-TPD.
All samples have two desorption peaks in the temperature region of 100–800°C, interpreting as the weak and strong acids. The data in Table 1 show that the number of weak acid sites on all catalysts is smaller than Mordenite zeolite. The amounts of weak acid of these samples are in the range of 57 ~ 308 mmol gcat−1, and those of strong acid are in 111 ~ 322 mmol gcat −1 range.
The density of total acid sites of the catalysts follows the sequence of Mordenite > Al-MCM-48-Mordenite > Zr-MCM-48-Mordenite > MCM-48-Mordenite > Al-MCM-48 > Zr-MCM-48. In other words, the strength of acidic sites in the catalyst of Al-MCM-48 and Zr-MCM-48 increases with the addition of Mordenite zeolite.
Figure 5 shows the adsorption/desorption isotherms of the all samples. The curves of samples exhibited typical Langmuir IV adsorption isotherms (ICPU), indicating that there was a certain amount of slit-shaped pores in the catalysts. For comparison, Table 1 summarizes the textural properties of the prepared catalysts (SBET, VP, and dP). The results show that Al-MCM-48 catalyst has the highest BET surface area (SBET). In addition, the specific surface area and pore volume of the Al-MCM-48 and Zr-MCM-48 decreased after composite formation with Mordenite zeolite. However, the pore diameter decreases. Furthermore, Al-MCM-48-Mordenite has a larger pore diameter (5.3 nm) than other catalysts.
3.2. Catalytic isomerization of n-C7
The catalytic performance of the Pt-loaded Mordenite, MCM-48-Mordenite, Zr-MCM-48, Zr-MCM-48-Mordenite, Al-MCM-48, and Al-MCM-48-Mordenite was investigated over n-C7 isomerization reaction in the range of 200–350°C. Table 2 lists the catalytic properties over synthesized catalysts. It is found that the n-heptane conversion increases with increasing temperature over all catalysts. The highest n-C7 conversion is 96.7% achieved on the catalyst Pt/Al-MCM-48-Mordenite at 350°C. It is believed that the n-heptane conversion of catalysts often depend upon the acid strength of catalysts due to increased chance of interaction between the acidic sites and the olefinic intermediates [28–30].
Table 2
Catalytic activity (Conv.%), selectivity (Sx%), coke amount (C.%), and RON at various reaction temperatures over Pt synthesized catalysts, denoted as: M: Mordenite, MM: MCM-48-Mordenite, ZM: Zr-MCM-48, ZMM: Zr-MCM-48-Mordenite, AM: Al-MCM-48, and AMM: Al-MCM-48-Mordenite.
Catalyst | T/°C | C | Conv. | SMOB | SMUB | Si−C7 | SC | SA | SH | RON |
AMM | 200 | | 78.8 | 24.4 | 57.5 | 81.9 | 4.2 | 0.4 | 13.9 | 96.5 |
250 | | 86.7 | 15.2 | 38.4 | 53.6 | 10.7 | 0.7 | 34.9 | 84.6 |
300 | 7.8 | 90.1 | 8.0 | 16.9 | 25.0 | 17.7 | 0.9 | 56.3 | 63.3 |
350 | | 96.7 | 3.2 | 8.9 | 12.2 | 20.3 | 1.4 | 66.3 | 58.5 |
AM | 200 | | 47.8 | 25.7 | 42.4 | 68.1 | 2.3 | 0.1 | 29.5 | 60.9 |
250 | | 50.7 | 26.3 | 28.2 | 54.5 | 4.2 | 0.2 | 41.1 | 59.6 |
300 | 4.7 | 54.8 | 13.3 | 15.1 | 28.4 | 8.5 | 0.2 | 63.0 | 58.2 |
350 | | 64.8 | 5.1 | 7.2 | 12.3 | 14.0 | 0.5 | 73.1 | 56.3 |
ZMM | 200 | | 65.7 | 23.0 | 38.5 | 61.5 | 8.0 | 0.6 | 29.8 | 68.4 |
250 | | 74.7 | 21.7 | 24.6 | 46.3 | 12.0 | 0.9 | 40.8 | 64.1 |
300 | 7.2 | 81.7 | 10.0 | 14.7 | 24.7 | 16.3 | 2.2 | 57.0 | 57.6 |
350 | | 89.4 | 3.3 | 7.8 | 11.1 | 19.0 | 3.2 | 66.7 | 52.8 |
ZM | 200 | | 42.7 | 22.6 | 35.0 | 57.6 | 5.7 | 0.1 | 36.5 | 49.0 |
250 | | 46.7 | 15.0 | 25.0 | 40.0 | 14.1 | 0.3 | 45.6 | 39.0 |
300 | 4.1 | 49.6 | 10.6 | 16.8 | 27.4 | 17.1 | 0.4 | 54.5 | 35.0 |
350 | | 55.7 | 4.2 | 4.8 | 9.0 | 20.3 | 0.5 | 70.1 | 34.5 |
MM | 200 | | 59.8 | 34.6 | 42.2 | 76.8 | 5.3 | 0.2 | 17.7 | 65.6 |
250 | | 67.6 | 16.6 | 33.1 | 49.7 | 11.9 | 0.5 | 37.9 | 62.3 |
300 | 6.3 | 75.8 | 8.3 | 15.5 | 23.8 | 18.0 | 1.1 | 57.1 | 51.9 |
350 | | 81.3 | 3.9 | 6.3 | 10.2 | 20.2 | 1.9 | 67.7 | 47.3 |
M | 200 | | 71.8 | 14.3 | 16.2 | 30.5 | 16.5 | 0.5 | 52.5 | 52.3 |
250 | | 84.7 | 8.2 | 9.0 | 17.3 | 20.0 | 0.6 | 62.1 | 51.6 |
300 | 3.4 | 91.6 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 7.2 | 22.1 | 1.1 | 69.7 | 48.8 |
350 | | 95.7 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 23.4 | 1.2 | 73.8 | 46.8 |
The density of acid sites was identified qualitatively by the location of maximum peak temperature in the TPD profiles. In addition, the results of the selectivity to monobranched (SMOB) and multibranched (SMUB) isomers and total i-C7 (Si−C7) were shown in Table 2. These results show that at low reaction temperature, the selectivity toward isoheptanes for all catalysts is high. Because the isomerization reaction has a thermodynamic limit. In other words, temperature acts as a limiting factor in this reaction. In synthesized catalysts, the ratio of MUB isomers to MOB isomers (R) nearly ranges, between 1.0 and 3.0. The selectivity to MUB isomers is higher than MOB isomers in all catalysts. The selectivity toward MUB isomers depends on surface characteristics of catalysts, such as the pore volume (Vp) and diameter (dp). The Pt/Al-MCM-48-Mordenite has large pore size (5.3 nm). This catalyst with proper pore size allow the good diffusion of MUB isomers through the pores before their cracking. Thus, Pt/Al-MCM-48-Mordenite catalyst has the best selectivity to MUB isomers and the R-value. MUB isomers are key product of the isomerization process due to their high octane number and great importance in the oil industry and provides a greater fuel resistance to knocking or pinging during combustion. In Table 2, we also expressed the selectivity of cracking, aromatization, and hydrogenolysis products of n-C7 against the reaction temperatures.
For all tested catalysts, cracking (C) and hydrogenolysis (H) were the dominant side reaction at high temperature. Combination of the mesoporous silica (MCM-48) and aluminum in support decreased the diffusion limitations for transport and residence time of the carbocation intermediates on the acidic sites during the isomerization reaction. As a result, on the Pt/Al-MCM-48 catalyst, the occurrence of cracking and aromatization (A) reactions was limited. As can be seen in Table 2, the synthesized catalysts form a little aromatization product. However, this amount is not very low in Pt/Zr-MCM-48-Mordenite, indicating that aromatization is affected by geometry, acidity, type of acid location, and balance between acid and metal functions. Another important result that was reported in our work is effects of temperature and catalyst type on the research octane number (RON). To calculate this parameter, Eq. (3) was used [31, 32]:
RON= \({\sum }_{\text{i}=1}^{\text{k}}{\text{y}}_{\text{i}}{\text{R}\text{O}\text{N}}_{\text{i}}\) (3)
In this equation, RONi represents the octane number of pure component (as i) and yi is the volume fractions of molecule i. The results show that Pt/Al-MCM-48-Mordenite at 200°C compared to other catalysts, due to the production of molecules with higher RONi, provides higher RON (RON = 96.5). Catalyst deactivation by coke is one of the problems of using catalysts in industrial processes. For this purpose, catalysts' stability was evaluated for n-heptane isomerization at 300 oC after 8 h on stream. As can be seen from Fig. 6, the catalysts have an almost constant performance in the course of the reaction, and are not deactivated significantly during this time on stream (TOS = 8 h). This verifies that the prepared catalysts process a very stable catalytic performance. However, the decrease in the Pt/Zr-MCM-48-Mordenite and Al-MCM-48-Mordenite catalyst is higher than other catalysts. One reason for this reduction is the rapid formation of coke on the catalytic surfaces. Therefore, coke formation on the catalysts was evaluated. The coke burning is a method to investigating the coke poisoning. The samples, which were tested for 8 hours at 300°C, were placed in an oven at 120°C to lose moisture, then weighed and placed in an oven at 300°C for one hour. Immediately after cooling, the tested catalyst was weighed again to obtain the weight difference. The weight difference is the amount of coke poisoning (Table 2). The low amount of coke deposited indicates the good stability of the prepared catalysts against deactivation during 8 h on stream. Overall, although the amount of coke (Table 2) over Pt/Al-MCM-48-Mordenite is larger than others, its catalytic activity and i-C7 selectivity are both better than others.