DOI: https://doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.20348

The Effect of Boron Concentration on the Properties and Paraselectivity of Zeolite HZSM-5 in the Methylation Reaction of Ethylbenzene

1Department of Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Chemistry Faculty, Baku State University, Baku AZ 1148, Azerbaijan

2Department of Petrochemical technology and industrial ecology Chemical Tech-nology, Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University, Baku, AZ 1002, Azerbaijan

Received: 4 Feb 2025; Revised: 14 Mar 2025; Accepted: 15 Mar 2025; Available online: 17 Mar 2025; Published: 30 Aug 2025.
Editor(s): Istadi Istadi
Open Access Copyright (c) 2025 by Authors, Published by BCREC Publishing Group
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Abstract

In order to increase the selectivity for p-ethyltoluene, catalytic systems based on HZSM-5 zeolite modified with orthoboric acid were obtained, which were used in the alkylation of ethylbenzene with methanol. The reaction was carried out in a continuous flow reactor with a fixed catalyst bed in the temperature range of 300-400 °C at atmospheric pressure to study the effect of boron concentration in the composition of HZSM-5 on the selectivity of the formation of ethyltoluenes and p-ethyltoluene. Physicochemical and textural characteristics of the catalysts were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Infra Red (IR) spectroscopy, NH3-Temperature Program Desorption (TPD) and low-temperature Nitrogen Adsorption (NA). It was found that the decrease in the density of strong acid sites, reduction in the volume of micropores and increase in the mesoporosity of zeolite as a result of modification are the main reasons for the enhancement of the catalyst selectivity to p-ethyltoluene. Catalyst 5 %B-HZSM-5 in the temperature range of 300 - 350 °C with conversion of ethylbenzene equal to 14.7-18.4 % shows a sufficiently high selectivity for p-ethyltoluene (60.5-70.2 %). Copyright © 2025 by Authors, Published by BCREC Publishing Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

Keywords: HZSM-5 zeolite; boron modification; selectivity for p-ethyltoluone; ethylbenzene; methanol
Funding: Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan

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Section: Original Research Articles
Language : EN
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