Applied Surface Science, Vol.433, 627-638, 2018
Trivalent ions modification for high-silica mordenite: A first principles study
Using periodic DFT-D3-U methods, the present work give a mechanistic insight into the high silica B-, Al-, Ga- and Fe-MOR with H, Li, Na, and K as charge balance ions. The acid properties of the zeolite were probed via NH3 and pyridine adsorption. It is found that the charge balance ions influence the location of the trivalent ions, the cell volumes, as well as the synthesis difficulty of the zeolites. The energy differences for B, Al, Ga and Fe in different T sites are small for the H-form zeolites, while large for the Na- and K-form zeolites. For H-form MOR, the proton of the -OH group prefers to bond to O(7) and O(3) and pointing to the 12MR for trivalent ions in T1 sites. The proton bonds to O(3), O(2), O(2) and O(5), respectively, for B, Al, Ga and Fe in T2 site of MOR, with the -OH group pointing to intersection of 12MR and the side-pocket, except for the B-MOR that-OH group pointing to the 12MR. For trivalent ions located in T3 and T4 sites, the protons prefers to bond to O(1) and O(2), respectively, with the-OH group pointing to the intersection of 8MR and side-pocket as well as the intersection of 12MR and side-pocket. All incorporated B, Al, Ga, and Fe framework ions are tetra-coordinated, except the B atoms are tri-coordinated. The NH4-form MOR has smaller cell volume than the other form MOR. Na and K are energetically more favored charge balance ions than Li and NH3 for MOR zeolites synthesis, and the H-form zeolite is the most difficult to be synthesized directly. The strength of the Bronsted acidity follows the order: HBMOR < HFeMOR HGaMOR < HAlMOR, vs. the Lewis acidity order: HBMOR < HAlMOR < HFeMOR HGaMOR. NH(3 )ould be adsorbed inside all kinds of channels, and especially favors in the small 8MR vs. pyridine could only be adsorbed in the main channel of MOR due to the steric effect. It indicates that the acid sites in the side pocket and the small 8-membered ring and the side pocket could not be effectively determined just by the pyridine adsorption experiments. In comparison, the NH(3 )adsorption experiments could detect all kinds of Bronsted sites of the MOR zeolites. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.