Vapor phase alkylation of toluene using various alcohols over H 3PO4/MCM-41 catalyst: Influence of reaction parameters on selectivity and conversion

Article abstract of DOI:10.3906/kim-0909-289

A mesoporous MCM-41 molecular sieve material with a molar ratio of SiO ₂/Al₂ O₃ = 70 and loaded with H₃ PO₄ was used as a catalyst for the alkylation of toluene, using various alcohols, namely methanol, iso-propanol, and tert-butanol, as alkylating agents. Para-alkylated toluene was the predominant product, formation of which was enhanced by moderate temperature, low amounts of the alkylating agents in the feed, and high carrier gas flow rate. Time on stream was found to exert a profound effect on the selectivity and conversion to the different products. TUeBITAK.

Full text of DOI:10.3906/kim-0909-289

Turk J Chem
34 (2010) , 875 – 885.
¨
˙
c
ꢀ TUBITAK
doi:10.3906/kim-0909-289
Vapor phase alkylation of toluene using various alcohols
over H3PO4/MCM-41 catalyst: influence of reaction
parameters on selectivity and conversion
Alireza ABBASPOURRAD1,∗, Roozbeh Javad KALBASI2,∗, Farzad ZAMANI2
1Department of Chemistry, Islamic Azad University, Shahryar-Qods City Branch,
37515-374, Qods City, Tehran-IRAN
2Department of Chemistry, Islamic Azad University, Shahreza Branch,
311-86145, Shahreza, Isfahan-IRAN
e-mail: abbaspour@alumni.iut.ac.ir, rkalbasi@iaush.ac.ir
Received 18.09.2009
A mesoporous MCM-41 molecular sieve material with a molar ratio of SiO2 /Al2 O3 = 70 and loaded
with H3 PO4 was used as a catalyst for the alkylation of toluene, using various alcohols, namely methanol,
iso-propanol, and tert-butanol, as alkylating agents. Para-alkylated toluene was the predominant product,
formation of which was enhanced by moderate temperature, low amounts of the alkylating agents in the
feed, and high carrier gas flow rate. Time on stream was found to exert a profound effect on the selectivity
and conversion to the different products.
Key Words: Alkylation; toluene; mesoporous MCM-41; vapor phase; H3 PO4 .
Introduction
The Friedel-Crafts alkylation reaction is a very useful reaction for the synthesis of alkyl aromatic compounds
both in the laboratory and on an industrial scale.1,2 The reaction is generally carried out with alkylating
reagents such as alkenes, alkyl chlorides, and alcohols by using a stoichiometric amount of Lewis and Bro¨nsted
acids.2 Environmentally hazardous Friedel-Crafts catalysts, such as AlCl3 , HF, or H2 SO4 , have been employed
widely.3 In recent years, the use of heterogeneous catalysts in liquid phase reactions has greatly increased due to
their advantages such as high activity and selectivity, reusability, ease of separation, and no corrosion or disposal
∗Corresponding author
875

Vapor phase alkylation of toluene using various alcohols over..., A. ABBASPOURRAD, et al.,
of effluent problems.4 Non-conventional solid acid catalysts such as MCM-41 have been used in this area and
they showed good thermal stability.5,6 The use of zeolites as non-conventional Friedel-Crafts catalysts, instead of
the hazardous mentioned catalysts, is very interesting from both the environmental and economic points of view.
No pollution problems are caused by these solid acids, whose pore structure is able to induce unique selectivity
effects. Heterogeneous catalysts such as zeolites have proved to be central to this strategy, and the careful
control of the reactions can maximize the selectivity and yield of a single desired product, while minimizing
the formation of by-products.6 MCM-41 is an interesting solid acid catalyst used widely in recent years. The
acidity of MCM-41 is low compared with other zeolites due to the disordered wall structure.6−9 However, the
incorporation of Al-atoms into the MCM-41 structure has been known to import acidity with Bro¨nsted acid sites
corresponding to framework Al-atoms and both framework and non-framework Al-atoms contributing to Lewis
acid sites.10 Thus, Al-MCM-41 has already been proposed as an alkylation catalyst.3,10 The combination of large
pores and mild acidity in Al-MCM-41 has been exploited to carry out Friedel-Crafts alkylation and acylation of
benzene with benzyl chloride.11−20 Shape selective alkylation of 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol with cinnamyl alcohol
and tertiary butylation of anthracene, naphthalene, and phenanthrene have also been reported over MCM-
41.12,14,18 Condon obtained 38% ortho, 27% meta, and 35% para-cymene by isopropylation of toluene under
conditions in which dealkylation and isomerization were thought to be unimportant.19 This distribution was
obtained when the reaction was catalyzed with aluminum chloride-nitromethane in benzene as a solvent or with
boron fluoride etherate at 658 ◦ C. Simons and Hart20 reported that hydrogen chloride catalyzed isopropylation
of toluene yielded a distribution of 31% ortho, 25% meta, and 44% para-cymene. Schlatter and Clark21 obtained
41% ortho, 26% meta, and 33% para-cymene with HF and phosphoric acid catalysts. Alkylation of toluene with
isopropyl alcohol and H2 SO4 (80%) at 708 ◦ C furnished 35% of 2,4 para-cymene and diisopropyltoluene.22
Moreover, para-cymene, para-ethyltoluene, and 4-tert-butyltoluene are also important chemical intermediates
obtained by acid alkylation of benzene or toluene.23
The present work was undertaken to study the selective alkylation of toluene with methanol, isopropanol,
and tert-butanol in the presence of MCM-41 molecular sieve, which had been modified and activated with
H3 PO4 loading on the basis of previous work24 as a useful catalyst in vapor phase conditions.
Experimental
Synthesis of the catalyst
The solid used as catalyst in the present work is one of the large series of Al-MCM-41 molecular sieves and
impregnated Al-MCM-41 with various amounts of H3 PO4 which its preparation and characterization have been
reported elsewhere.24 Ghiaci et al.24 demonstrated a modification on MCM-41 synthesis and some synthesis
parameters such as the Al/Si ratio, the source of aluminum, and the temperature, were systematically modified
and the different synthesis procedures can be seen in the mentioned reference. All characterizations of the
catalyst samples are reported by Ghiaci et al.24 Pyridine was used as a probe molecule to distinguish between
Brønsted and Lewis acid sites.25 Fourier transform IR spectra of adsorbed pyridine were measured using a
JASCO FT/IR (680 plus) spectrometer.26
876

Vapor phase alkylation of toluene using various alcohols over..., A. ABBASPOURRAD, et al.,
Synthesis of MCM-41 with SiO2 /Al2O3 = 70
First 0.050 g (0.75 mmol) of aluminum hydroxide gel was dissolved in the boiling solution of sodium hydroxide
including 1.7031 g (41.73 mmol) of sodium hydroxide and some water. Water was slowly added to this solution
until the total amount of water reached 23.0 g (1277.8 mmol). Then 5.5535 g (26.38 mmol SiO2) of sodium
silicate solution and 2.4219 g (23.48 mmol) of sulfuric acid were added to prepared aluminate solution. The
obtained gel was stirred for 0.5 h to give a completely homogeneous mixture of reactants. Then an aqueous
solution of cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), prepared by dissolving of 2.3 g (6.31 mmol) of CTAB,
was slowly added to the gel mixture. The resulting mixture was then stirred for 1 h at room temperature. The
final pH was 10.48. Then it was kept in an autoclave at 373 K for about 1 h. The temperature was increased
to 443 K and kept at that level for another 3.5 h. The obtained solid was recovered by filtration, followed by
exhaustive washing with distilled water until neutral pH in the filtrate was obtained. The solid was dried at
373 K for 8 h and then the sample was calcined at 813 K for about 5 h.
Preparation of H3 PO4 /MCM-41 molecular sieves
Synthesized MCM-41 molecular sieves with 15 wt% H3 PO4 content were prepared by impregnating a calculated
amount of H3 PO4 dissolved in distilled water on MCM-41 molecular sieves with a molar ratio of SiO2 /Al2 O3
= 70. The impregnated catalysts were dried at 383 K for 12 h and then calcined in air at 873 K for 4 h. All
the impregnated catalysts were pressed into wafers, crushed, and sieved to 20-40 mesh before use.
Characterization of the catalyst
Approximately 40-50 mg of material previously calcined in air for 4 h at 500 ◦ C was pressed (for 3 min at 15 t
cm−2 pressure under approximately 10−2 torr vacuum) into a self-supporting wafer of 15 mm diameter. The
resulted wafer was treated with 26 mmHg of pyridine at 473 K for 1 h and evacuated at 473, 573, and 673 K for
1 h in a dynamic vacuum. After each treatment, an IR spectrum was recorded at room temperature. The peak
areas corresponding to the concentration of Brønsted and Lewis acid sites adsorbed pyridine were collected at
1545 and 1445 cm−1 respectively. The extinction coefficients given by Emeis27 (1.67 and 2.22 cm/μmol for
Brønsted and Lewis acid sites, respectively) were considered. The relevant peak areas calculated for all the
catalysts are presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Acidity of the catalysts used for alkylation of toluene.
Brønsted acidity (mmol kg-1)
Lewis acidity (mmol kg-1)
Catalyst
(desorption temperature of pyridine)
(desorption temperature of pyridine)
473 K
573 K
673 K
473 K
573 K
673 K
Al-MCM-41
227
198
173
139
120
205
176
157
119
103
110
100
84
24
23
22
10 wt% H3PO4/Al-MCM-41
15 wt% H3PO4/Al-MCM-41
25 wt% H3PO4/Al-MCM-41
30 wt% H3PO4/Al-MCM-41
9
9
8
9
8
7
64
5
4
4
36
2
2
0
877

Vapor phase alkylation of toluene using various alcohols over..., A. ABBASPOURRAD, et al.,
Typical procedure for the vapor phase alkylation of toluene
The catalytic reactions were carried out in a down flow fixed bed tubular glass microreactor (15 mm internal
diameter and 30 cm length) at atmospheric pressure and using 0.5 g of catalyst in each run. The catalyst was
compacted in a hydraulic press. The pellets were broken and then sieved to 20-40 mesh size prior to use. The
reactor was placed inside a temperature controlled vertical furnace and the thermocouple tip was situated at
the center of the catalyst bed. After being loaded in the reactor, the catalyst was pretreated at 723 K for
3 h and using an inert gas stream of nitrogen (40 mL/min). Solutions of each alcohol dissolved in toluene
(alcohol:toluene = 0.1) were fed, using a syringe pump with an optimum rate of 0.1 mL/min. The pure inert
gas (nitrogen as carrier gas) was introduced by using a mass flow controller. Time-on-stream (TOS) was usually
deducted within 30 min after the start of the reaction since mass balance in the initial period was poor. Then
the products were collected from the reactor every hour in an ice/water trap and analyzed off-line with a gas
chromatograph equipped with a 50 m-length capillary SE-30 column and a FID detector. N-decane was used
as internal standard.
Results and discussion
To understand the role of H3 PO4 loading on the catalyst and the changes in surface acidity of the catalyst,
pyridine adsorption/desorption was used. In addition, to investigate the influence of reaction parameters on
the selectivity and conversion we changed several factors and measured their influences on the selectivity and
conversion. These parameters, including H3 PO4 content, reaction temperature, injection rate of the starting
materials, carrier gas flow rate, and time-on-stream (TOS), were studied in detail.
Acidity measurements
The acidity of the H3 PO4 /MCM-41 samples with various amounts of H3 PO4 was measured using FTIR
spectroscopy and pyridine as a probe molecule. The results obtained from all of the samples are summarized
in Table 1.
Table 1 illustrates that in all catalysts the impregnation of various amounts of H3 PO4 leads to a decrease
in the Brønsted acidity. As the percentage of impregnated H3 PO4 goes up, the strong Brønsted sites convert
to weak Brønsted acidic sites. Therefore, the number of strong Brønsted sites decreases. According to the
results in Table 1, the numbers of Lewis acid sites are much lower than the numbers of Brønsted acid sites.
Especially when the amount of loaded H3 PO4 increases, the numbers of Lewis acid sites become negligible.
Therefore, it would be expected that the Brønsted acid sites in this catalyst play a key role in the alkylation
mechanism. As stated before, with loading H3 PO4 on the catalyst, the numbers of strong acid sites decreased
and the numbers of weak acid sites increased. It could be concluded that H3 PO4 /MCM-41 is a mild acid
catalyst suitable for toluene alkylation. According to this mild acidity nature, by-products such as dehydration
products and di-alkylated products are negligible in the steam products. In addition, a lower rate of catalyst
deactivation, because of coke formation on the surface of MCM-41, was observed, which was related to its mild
acidity.
878

Vapor phase alkylation of toluene using various alcohols over..., A. ABBASPOURRAD, et al.,
Influence of H3 PO4 content on the toluene alkylation
Improvement of the H3 PO4 /MCM-41 catalyst is achieved by optimizing the loaded H3 PO4 (Table 2). Variation
loaded H3 PO4 between 0 and 30 wt% has different effects on the activity and selectivity of alkylation. The
activity of the catalysts with different amounts of H3 PO4 is compared in Table 2 for the alkylation reaction
at 330 ◦ C for a period of time-on-stream (TOS = 8 h). Alkylation of toluene was done using methanol, iso-
propanol, and tert-butanol as alkylating agent. Alkylation of toluene resulted in 3 products: para-alkylated
as a major product, as well as small amounts of ortho-alkylated and di-alkylated products (Scheme), while
dehydration products (alkene) were not detected even as a trace.
Table 2. Influence of the H3 PO4 loading on the conversion of the alcohols and selectivity toward different products.
Para-alkylated toluene
Ortho-alkylated toluene
Dialkylated toluene
(%)
Conversion (%)
MeOH i-PrOH t-BuOH
H3PO4
(wt%)
(%)
(%)
Me
57
i-Pr
64
t-Bu
73
Me
34
i-Pr
30
t-Bu
25
Me
7
i-Pr
6
t-Bu
2
0
2
5
8
10
45
72
79
65
73
83
75
73
79
88
77
84
89
94
73
28
22
12
21
22
27
9
15
10
6
7
5
5
4
5
4
3
1
1
1
-
15
25
30
74
98
83
91
100
100
100
100
100
22
27
-
Reaction conditions: T = 330 °C; P = 1 atm; injection rate = 0.05 mL/min; carrier gas N2; N2 flow rate = 30 mL/min.
CH3
CH3
CH3
CH3
R
R
H3PO4 /MCM-41
R - OH
+
+
+
methyl
R
R
R =
iso-propyl
tert-butyl
Para-Alkylated Ortho-Alkylated Dialkylated
Scheme. Alkylation of toluene.
The first important result is that H3 PO4 -containing catalysts are more active than the support alone
(without loaded H3 PO4). The obtained results also show that the maximum alcohol conversion and best
selectivity to para-alkylated toluene is recorded for the catalyst including 25 wt% H3 PO4 . Interestingly,
the para-alkylated toluene selectivity also increases with increasing amount of loaded H3 PO4 , reaching the
maximum value for the solids with 15-25 wt% H3 PO4 . Beyond this loading, selectivity to para-alkylated
toluene decreases. According to the literature, supported H3 PO4 on silica (silica phosphoric acid-SPA) was
discovered by Ipatieff23 and industrially developed in the 1940s. The first modified MCM-41 zeolite as the
support for phosphoric acid was reported,24 which led to the improvement of the shape selectivity of that
zeolite. It is assumed25−28 that by treating the aluminosilicate molecular sieves with phosphoric acid the
bridged OH groups between Si and Al atoms are replaced by the H2 PO−4 groups. The substitution of the
879

Vapor phase alkylation of toluene using various alcohols over..., A. ABBASPOURRAD, et al.,
Brønsted acidic hydroxyl groups by the H2 PO−4 groups implies different consequences on the strength and
density of the Brønsted acid sites. Strong Brønsted acid sites are converted into weak Brønsted acid sites, and
the resulting terminal hydroxyl groups have a lower acid strength than the bridged hydroxyl groups, but the
number of weak acidic Brønsted sites increases twice. Therefore the catalytic activity of the catalyst increases
with loading H3 PO4 . Moreover, by treating a zeolite with H3 PO4 , the areal activity of the catalyst and the
theoretical surface area and accessible pore volume decrease. We think that the diffusion constraints imposed
by phosphoric acid might induce new properties to the surface. In this work we loaded MCM-41 with H3 PO4
and studied its catalytic properties in the alkylation of toluene with various alcohols. The MCM-41 without
phosphoric acid shows a very low conversion and a moderate selectivity to para-alkylated toluene. One would
expect the MCM-41 without phosphoric acid to show a low conversion. However, this catalyst has the least
diffusional constraint and for this reason the molecules have more room to tumble. Therefore, it is not possible
to achieve high percentages of para-alkylated products over MCM-41 catalyst without modifying by phosphoric
acid. By increasing the amount of loaded H3 PO4 it is clear that the conversion and selectivity increases.
When the H3 PO4 content reaches 30 wt%, the conversion remains high but the selectivity toward bulkier
para-alkylated toluene (p-tert butyl toluene) decreases to some extent. The increase in the amount of the
ortho-alkylated toluene, when the H3 PO4 content is further increased, is probably due to blocking of the pore
network of the support by phosphoric acid. Therefore, the reaction is presumably occurring on the external
surface of the catalyst, which does not induce any shape selectivity.
Influence of reaction temperature on the toluene alkylation
Temperature has a paramount effect in the product distribution for alkylation of toluene. The effects of the
reaction temperature in the toluene alkylation with alcohols over 25 wt% H3 PO4 /MCM-41 in the range 250-370
◦ C are summarized in Table 3 and selectivity of the catalyst at these temperatures is given in the Figure. The
molar ratio of alcohol to toluene is 0.1. In all the studies, the major product was para-alkylated toluene, which
increased with increasing temperature to 330 ◦ C, and at higher temperature para selectivity decreased.
100
90
80
70
60
50
250
270
290
310
330
350
370
Temperature (˚C)
Methylation
iso-propylation
tert-butylation
Figure. Influence of the reaction temperature on conversion of alcohols and product selectivity. Reaction conditions:
P = 1 atm; injection rate = 0.05 mL/min; carrier gas N2 ; N2 flow rate = 30 mL/min.
The selectivity toward the dialkylated products remained less than 7% in the temperature range of the
study. It can be seen from Table 3 that the conversion of alcohols at 250-310 ◦ C and over 25 wt% H3 PO4 /MCM-
41 was around 42%-88%, reaching 100% at higher temperatures. For experiments at higher temperatures, i.e.
880

Vapor phase alkylation of toluene using various alcohols over..., A. ABBASPOURRAD, et al.,
above 310 ◦ C, the formation of dialkylated products increased. Despite this increase we observed higher
conversion and para-selectivity above 310 ◦ C. Thus, 330 ◦ C was the most favorable temperature for this
reaction. Therefore, the other experiments were carried out at this temperature.
Table 3. Influence of the reaction temperature on the conversion of the alcohols and selectivity toward different products.
Conversion (%)
MeOH i-PrOH t-BuOH
Para-alkylated toluene
Ortho-alkylated toluene
Dialkylated toluene
(%)
Temperature
(°C)
(%)
(%)
Me
57
i-Pr
65
t-Bu
80
Me
40
i-Pr
35
t-Bu
19
Me
3
i-Pr
-
t-Bu
-
250
270
290
310
330
350
370
42
53
40
58
62
73
59
59
63
83
75
70
66
70
74
88
75
68
81
88
91
94
92
90
40
39
35
12
22
23
32
29
24
9
18
10
7
1
2
2
5
3
7
1
-
-
-
69
88
73
89
97
98
1
3
3
4
1
-
98
100
100
100
100
100
100
6
100
100
20
24
4
1
2
4
mL/min.
Reaction conditions: P = 1 atm; injection rate = 0.05 mL/min; carrier gas N2; N2 flow rate = 30
Influence of injection rate on toluene alkylation
Table 4 demonstrates the influence of injection rate on the conversion of alcohols. Increasing the injection rate
of the feed, resulting in reduced contact time of reactant over the catalyst, and diffusion in the catalyst channels
Table 4. Influence of the injection rate of the starting materials on the conversion of the alcohols and selectivity toward
different products.
Conversion (%)
Para-alkylated toluene
Ortho-alkylated toluene
Dialkylated toluene
(%)
(%)
(%)
Injection rate
mL/min
MeOH i-PrOH t-BuOH
Me
i-Pr
t-Bu
Me
i-Pr
t-Bu
Me
i-Pr
t-Bu
0.025
0.050
0.075
0.100
100
98
100
100
94
100
100
100
96
58
83
61
55
69
88
72
67
88
94
90
85
40
12
37
43
27
9
10
6
2
5
2
2
2
3
1
2
1
-
100
97
27
30
7
1
4
91
10
Reaction conditi
ons: T = 330 °C; P = 1 atm; carrier gas N2; N2 flow rate = 30 mL/min.
881

Vapor phase alkylation of toluene using various alcohols over..., A. ABBASPOURRAD, et al.,
we observed a decrease in para selectivity of alkylation and a decrease in the conversion of alcohol. The yield
of para product was highest when the injection rate was 0.05 mL/min. On the basis of this finding, we applied
an injection rate of 0.05 mL/min in further experiments to investigate the influence of other parameters.
Influence of the carrier gas flow rate on toluene alkylation
The influence of the carrier gas flow rate on the conversion of the alcohols and the selectivity to the para-
substituted isomers during toluene alkylation reaction is shown in Table 5. It can be seen that increasing the
flow rate of the carrier gas (N2) results in an increase in the para selectivity and a decrease in the conversion of
alcohol, probably due to the shorter residence time of the starting materials on the catalyst surface and hence
lower conversion but higher selectivity. An increase in the carrier gas flow to 30 mL/min leads to an increase
in the yield of para-alkylation products.
Table 5. Influence of the flow rate of the carrier gas on the conversion of the alcohols and product selectivity.
Conversion (%)
Para-alkylated toluene
Ortho-alkylated toluene
Dialkylated toluene
(%)
(%)
(%)
Flow rate
mL/min
MeOH i-PrOH t-BuOH
Me
45
i-Pr
t-Bu
78
Me
54
i-Pr
t-Bu
21
Me
i-Pr
t-Bu
10
20
30
40
100
100
98
100
100
100
78
100
100
100
80
55
41
1
0.5
-
52
83
58
64
88
69
84
94
89
46
12
40
34
9
15
6
2
5
2
0.5
3
-
-
-
96
30
10
-
Reaction conditions: T = 330 °C; P = 1 atm; injection rate = 0.05 mL/min; carrier gas N2.
Influence of TOS on toluene alkylation
Time-on-stream (TOS) studies were carried out over the 25 wt% H3 PO4 /MCM-41 catalyst under the conditions
previously selected as optimum (330 ◦ C, injection rate of 0.05 mL/min, and flow rate of 30 mL/min) with the
molar ratio of alcohol:toluene as 1:10. The study was conducted for 8 h and the results are presented in Table
6. As shown, a decrease in conversion with an increase in TOS was observed. In part, this might be due to the
blocking of active sites of the catalyst by coke. Surprisingly, this study indicated that alkylation of toluene did
not result, even after 8 h on-stream. The increase in selectivity of ortho-derivatives with time is because of fast
deactivation due to coke formation and pore blockage, which facilitated the forming of ortho products over the
surface of the catalyst instead of inside the pores in comparison to other derivatives.
Leaching studies of H3 PO4 /MCM-41
The catalysts were recycled 5 times, by calcination at 500 ◦ C in a flow of air, in order to test their activity
at 330 ◦ C for the title reaction (Table 7). It was observed that there was no significant loss in activity of the
882

Vapor phase alkylation of toluene using various alcohols over..., A. ABBASPOURRAD, et al.,
catalyst for this reaction and hence the deactivation must be due to coke formation, which was removed during
reactivation (regeneration) of catalyst. From the experiments on leaching studies using H3 PO4 /MCM-41, no
leaching of H3 PO4 was observed from the catalyst after the catalytic reaction (Table 7).
Table 6. Influence of time on stream on the conversion of the alcohols and on the selectivity toward different products.
Para-alkylated toluene
Ortho-alkylated toluene
Dialkylated toluene
(%)
Conversion (%)
Time-on-steam
(h)
(%)
(%)
MeOH i-PrOH t-BuOH
Me
i-Pr
t-Bu
Me
i-Pr
t-Bu
Me
i-Pr
t-Bu
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
98
98
97
94
93
91
84
80
100
100
99
100
100
99
83
83
85
87
85
75
73
70
88
88
90
92
90
72
70
70
94
94
95
96
93
89
85
81
12
13
12
11
11
23
21
28
9
9
6
6
5
4
3
2
4
2
6
2
3
3
-
-
-
-
1
-
-
-
10
8
5
-
95
97
4
-
94
96
9
6
1
90
92
28
29.5
30
11
15
19
-
85
87
0.5
-
79
81
Reaction conditions: T = 330 °C; P = 1 atm; injection rate = 0.05 mL/min; carrier gas N2; N2 flow rate = 30 mL/min
Table 7. Recycling of 25 wt% H3 PO4 /Al-MCM-41 catalyst in alkylation of toluene with tert-butanol.
Product selectivity (%)
Conversion of tert-
Cycle
butanol (%)
Di-alkylated
product
4-tert-butyl toluene
2-tert-butyl toluene
Fresh
1st
100
99.8
99.7
99.8
95.3
90.1
94.0
94.0
93.7
92.6
91.4
91.1
6.0
6.0
6.1
6.7
6.4
6.0
-
-
2nd
0.2
0.7
2.2
2.9
3rd
4th
5th
Comparison with other solid acid catalysts
Table 8 shows the comparison between the catalyst used in the present study and other solid catalysts reported
in the literature for toluene alkylation. As can be seen from these data, the 25 wt% H3 PO4 /MCM-41 catalyst
shows high para selectivity, very low dialkylated and ortho-alkylated toluene as well as excellent conversion for
alcohols in the optimum conditions.
883

Vapor phase alkylation of toluene using various alcohols over..., A. ABBASPOURRAD, et al.,
Table 8. Catalytic activity in the vapor phase reaction of toluene with various alcohols over different catalysts.
Product selectivity (%)
Conversion
of toluene
(%)
Conversion
of alcohol
(%)
Molar ratio
Para-
alkylated
(%)
Catalyst
Reagent
Ref.
Ortho-
(toluene/alcohol)
Dialkylated
alkylated (%)
tert-butyl
alcohol
Hβ (25)
HY (30)
4/1
4/1
4/1
21.1
21.9
15.3
-
-
-
62.3
79.9
85.2
-
-
-
0.3
0.6
0.4
[28]
[28]
[28]
tert-butyl
alcohol
tert-butyl
alcohol
HMCM-22 (52)
MCM-22
P-MCM-22
ITQ-2
methanol
methanol
methanol
5/1
5/1
5/1
5.4
3.8
2.3
65.8
54.0
33.6
40.4
78.5
23.6
32.5
6.3
59.1
-
-
-
[29]
[29]
[29]
P-ITQ-2
methanol
0.6
99.45
72.8
36.0
83.0
60.73
52.74
9.7
-
[29]
[30]
[30]
5/1
1/2
Zn–Al–MCM-
tert-butyl
-
-
2.0
41(75)
alcohol
Zn–Al–MCM-
41(380)
tert-butyl
alcohol
1/2
-
-
-
-
9.0
-
-
5
3
-
10% Pr/ZSM-
10% B/ZSM-5
H3PO4/MCM-
41
methanol
methanol
5/1
4.5
51.5
13.4
0
12
[31]
5/1
5.5
99.9
[31]
This
work
This
work
This
work
methanol
2-propanol
tert-butanol
10/1
10/1
10/1
-
-
-
98
83
88
94
H3PO4/MCM-
41
100
100
9
H3PO4/MCM-
41
6
Conclusion
High activity of 25 wt% H3 PO4 /MCM-41 catalyst was exhibited toward the alkylation of toluene with methyl,
isopropyl, and tert-butyl groups, using the corresponding alcohols as alkylating agents. High selectivity to the
para-substituted derivatives was observed, mainly for isopropylation and tert-butylation; the higher selectivity
was found when the bulkier alcohol and tert-butanol were employed. Ortho-derivatives were found in lower
amounts, and dehydration products were not detected in the products for isopropylation and tert-butylation.
Influences of the critical reaction parameters were studied and an optimized condition finally applied to measure
the activity of the catalyst during 8 h of reaction. The selectivity toward di-alkylated products remained less
than 7% in our study. Surprisingly, this study indicated that the alkylation of toluene did not result, even after
8 h on-stream.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks from the authors to Islamic Azad University, Shahriar-Qods Branch; Research Council and
Center of Excellence in Chemistry; and Islamic Azad University, Shahreza Branch for their support of this
work.
884

Vapor phase alkylation of toluene using various alcohols over..., A. ABBASPOURRAD, et al.,
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