Alkylation of Benzene with Formaldehyde over ZSM-5

Benzyl alcohol is currently produced by hydrolysis of benzyl chloride and the by-products are sodium chloride and carbon dioxide. A “green chemistry” route would be the direct synthesis from benzene and formaldehyde. Therefore, ZSM-5, a medium pore zeolite, was used to evaluate the potential of usin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of catalysis 1999-05, Vol.184 (1), p.294-297
Main Authors: Wu, Xianchun, Anthony, R.G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Catalysis
Catalytic reactions
Chemistry
Exact sciences and technology
General and physical chemistry
Theory of reactions, general kinetics. Catalysis. Nomenclature, chemical documentation, computer chemistry
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Summary:Benzyl alcohol is currently produced by hydrolysis of benzyl chloride and the by-products are sodium chloride and carbon dioxide. A “green chemistry” route would be the direct synthesis from benzene and formaldehyde. Therefore, ZSM-5, a medium pore zeolite, was used to evaluate the potential of using shape selective catalysis to control the product distribution obtained by alkylation of benzene with formaldehyde. The restriction of the channels resulted in a synthesis of benzyl alcohol and benzylmethyl ether. Neither of these products is obtained with a Friedel–Crafts' catalyst, such as AlCl3, nor with HY zeolite. Temperature has an effect on benzene conversion, but essentially none on product distribution. Water increases the selectivity to benzyl alcohol but decreases the conversion. Modification of the zeolite with boric acid increases the selectivity to benzylmethyl ether and benzyl alcohol, while modification with phosphorus acid does not, which may be due to the formation of phosphorus acid in the reaction mixture.
ISSN:0021-9517
1090-2694
DOI:10.1006/jcat.1999.2426