Effect of acidity in TS-1 zeolites on product distribution of the styrene oxidation reaction Original Research Article

The role of Brønsted acidity of titanium silicalite zeolite (with different ratios of Si/Ti) in oxidation reactions of styrene has been investigated and discussed. For zeolites with Si/Ti>42, most of the titanium is in the zeolite framework. These framework titanium species, which act both as the isolated titanium centers and as Brønsted acidity centers (together with the Brønsted acidity produced by the tetrahedral aluminum impurity introduced during synthesis), can catalyze both the epoxidation and the succeeding rearrangement reactions, thus promoting the formation of phenylacetaldehyde. With an increase in the titanium content of the zeolite, titanium will tend to stay outside the zeolite lattice, except for the TiOx nanophases which can be occluded in the zeolite channels or on the external surface. These non-framework titanium species are favorable for the carbon–carbon bond scission, leading to the production of additional benzaldehyde. The catalytic performances of these zeolites with different Si/Ti ratios are correlated here with their structural information by using solid-state NMR and UV-Vis methods.