Heats of Adsorption of Ammonia and Correlation of Activity and Acidity in Heterogeneous Catalysis

Adsorption microcalorimetry was applied to determine heats of adsorption of ammonia on zeolites Y, mordenite, ZSM-5, heteropolyacid H3PW12O40, as well as silica gel and amorphous aluminosilicates. The plots of differential heats against coverage served to construct the acidity spectra and, in this way, to determine the number of acid sites with different acidity strengths. The behavior of these materials in acid-catalyzed reactions, primarily, in the transformations of hydrocarbons is discussed. Evidence is presented that heats of adsorption of ammonia can be used to obtain correlation plots that describe relations between acidic and catalytic properties of zeolite catalysts.