Preparation and characterization of zeolite catalysts for etherification reaction

Catalytic etherification of 2-naphthol with ethanol has been carried out over a series of solid-acid catalysts such as H-Beta, H-MOR and H-ZSM-5 using a flow-type reactor. H-Beta zeolite shows higher conversion and catalytic stability than other catalysts for the production of 2-naphthyl ethyl ether, which may be correlated to the amount and strength of acid sites. H-Beta zeolites with different Si/Al ratios show that conversion decreases with increasing Si/Al ratios. The NH3-TPD profiles indicate that the weak acidity decreases more sharply with increase in Si/Al ratios, compared with the strong acidity. The influences of ethanol/2-naphthol molar ratios, reaction temperature, and space velocity with respect to catalytic activities are investigated for H-Beta zeolite in the present work.