Dimethyl ether (DME) coupling with CO over acidicmordenite zeolites providesa non-noble metal catalysis and halide-free process to convert the syngas to ethanol,which has attracted considerable attention in the past decade, especially in China.However, the mordenitecatalysts suffer fromthe fast deactivation due to coke formation.

Recently, a research group led by Prof. Zhongmin Liu and Wenliang Zhu fromDalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences reported that introducing 1,3-dimethylimidazolium ions intomordenitezeolite via ion-exchange can selectively remove the acid sites in 12-membered ring (MR) channels, significantly enhancing the stability and activity. Additionally, ion-exchange with organic ions was used to control the acid site distributions to separately investigate the DME carbonylation reaction in 8-MR and 12-MR channels. The reaction results indicated that the acid sites in 12-MR channels can concurrently catalyze the carbonylation and methanol-to-hydrocarbons (MTH) reactions, and MTH reactions seriouslysuppress the carbonylationactivity in 8-MR channels.

This work was published inCatalysis Communication.

The present work would deepen the understanding of the roles of acid sites at 12-MR channels in DME carbonylation reaction and presents an effective approach to improve the catalytic performance.

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the “Transformational Technologies for Clean Energy and Demonstration”, Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (TEXTby Shiping Liu).

Dimethyl ether Carbonylation over Mordenite zeolite modified by Alkyimidazolium ions. Shiping Liu, Xudong Fang, Yong Liu, Hongchao Liu, Xiangang Ma, Wenliang Zhu, Zhongmin Liu*, CATALYSIS COMMUNICATIONS,10.1016/j.catcom.2020.106161, 2020.