Acidity Characterization of Catalyst Libraries by High-Throughput Testing

The development of acid and bi-functional catalysts with controlled properties is a matter of high interest for refinery applications. The issues of characterization and quantification of catalyst acidity in the frame of high throughput (HT) screening are outlined. The present study deals with the development of a HT method for the characterization of the Brønsted acidity of 80 bifunctional catalysts library by means of isomerization of 3,3-dimethylbutene testing. Catalytic results are validated with literature data. The choice of probe molecules, the operating conditions and deactivation issues upon testing are addressed. This method allows quantifying very accurately the acid strength. Catalyst ranking from large library can be achieved an acidity scale in conditions similar to the practical applications. The pros and cons of the use of model reactions for HT quantitative characterization are discussed.