Evaluation of Catalytic Performance of Hierarchical Zeolites in Friedel-Crafts Fixed-bed Alkylation

Friedel-Crafts alkylation is one of the most important catalytic reactions in organic chemistry. Recently, hierarchical zeolites have exhibited superior catalytic performance in such liquid-phase batch reactions. However, for practical application, it is of significance to evaluate their catalytic performance in Friedel-Crafts fixed-bed alkylation. In this work, we prepare hierarchical zeolites by post-treatment, of which the structures are confirmed by XRD patterns and N-2 adsorption- desorption tests. Then, a fixed-bed reactor is employed to investigate their catalytic performance in series of benzylation reactions. The results indicate that hierarchical zeolites have superior anti-deactivation ability in the benzylation reactions, especially when react with p-xylene or mesitylene, the BA conversion maintained nearly 100 % in 300 min, much better than that of micropore zeolites. These results suggest that hierarchical zeolites have a potential industrial application for Friedel-Crafts fixed-bed alkylation than conventional zeolites.