(544bf) Synthesis of Nanoporous Zeolite-Y Assisted By an Inexpensive Bifunctional Cationic Polymeric Template

Aasif
A. Dabbawala^a, Yasser F. Alwahedi^a, Marios S. Katsiotis^b,
Balasubramanian V. Vaithilingam^c, Gnana P. Singaravel^c, Stephane Morin^c, Mikael Berthod^c and Saeed M.
Alhassan^a*

^a Materials and catalysis division, Chemical
engineering department, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu
Dhabi, UAE

^bGroup Engineering & Technology,
TITAN Cement company,

Elefsina, Greece

^c Catalysis division, ADNOC refining
research center, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Corresponding
E-mail: saeed.alkhazraji@ku.ac.ae

Abstract

Zeolites are crystalline aluminosilicate possessing a 3D network
structure and widely used for various applications such catalysis, adsorption
and separation. However, zeolite with only microporosity exhibits diffusion
limitation pertaining to transport of large molecules into the inner zeolite framework.
One approach to enhance catalytic performance of zeolite is to induce
mesoporosity and synthesize zeolites having diverse porous structure (micro-mesoporosity,
hierarchical zeolite). Such modification in zeolite structure decreases
diffusion issue and reactant molecules can easily reach to active acid sites
resulting high activity/selectivity. The number of hard and soft templates have
been attempted such as carbonized materials and long chain surfactants to
generate micro-mesoporosity in zeolite structure. However, the some of the
issue still remain challenge such as use of expensive template or require
multiple steps to synthesize template, addition of co-template and require
longer synthesis time. The present work is focus on to produce nano-porous
zeolite-Y using an inexpensive and commercially available
Polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDDA) cationic polymer as PDDA was used mostly
to synthesize Mesoporous Zeolite Beta. The role of PDDA cationic polymer is
bifunctional, the quaternary ammonium moiety in the polymer acts as SDA similar
to conventional tetra-methyl ammonium salt which require to prepare FAU phase,
while long polymeric chain helps in generating mesoporosity. Characterization of
material synthesize by assistance of this templet showed the generation of
mesoporosity in entire sample and also material is highly crystalline with octahedral
shape morphology (Scheme 1). Further detail study and application of
nanoporous zeolite-Y for catalytic reaction are currently underway in our
laboratory.

Scheme 1: Synthesis of nanoporous zeolite-Y using PDDA cationic polymeric
template