Zeolite catalyzed ring opening of styrene oxide Original Research Article

Activation of styrene oxide for ring opening reactions has been achieved over acidic forms of zeolites possessing two dimensional intersecting channels of different sizes (HZSM-5 and HZSM-35), as well as over two silver modifications of the latter. Zeolite type Beta has been tested for determining the influence of the channel structure to the reactionsʹ selectivity. Selective formation of 2-phenylethanol on HZSM-35 has been observed. On the silver modifications of zeolite ZSM-35 significant quantities of phenylacetic acid have been determined together with the expected product 2-phenylethanol.