Effect of Sulfation of Zirconia on Catalytic Performance in the Dehydration of Aliphatic Alcohols

Abstract

Abstract Catalytic dehydration of 2‐propanol and that of 1‐butanol were performed at atmospheric pressure and 150–300°C over ZrO 2 and sulfated ZrO 2 (S/ZrO 2 ) in a fixed‐bed, tubular reactor. The catalysts were characterized with XRD, elemental analysis, FT‐IR, N 2 physisorption, TG/DTA, TPD, and TPR. The main structures of ZrO 2 and S/ZrO 2 were monoclinic and tetragonal, respectively. As ZrO 2 was modified with sulfuric acid, its surface area and acid amount were greatly increased, whereas the pore volume, the pore diameter, and the particle size were reduced. Both samples owned weak basicity. For both reactions, only dehydration products of alkene and ether were obtained. The alcohol conversion enhanced remarkably with the catalyst acid amount and the surface area as well as the reaction temperature. In addition, the ether selectivity on S/ZrO 2 decreased with raising the reaction temperature. The activation energy was 81.0 kJ/mol in the propene formation from 2‐propanol over S/ZrO 2 . The corresponding value was 94.4 kJ/mol for the dehydration of 1‐butanol.