Development of an Analytical Method for Evaluating the Catalytic Active Sites of Titanium Silicalite Zeolite

A simple, quick, sensitive, accurate and precise method has been developed for evaluating the catalytic active sites of titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1). The catalytic active sites of titanium silicalite zeolite depend on the effectively active species (EAS) in TS-1 which react with specific substrates quickly. However, the EAS was hard to be evaluated with conventional instruments and techniques in the past. In this paper, the EAS was formed in TS-1 upon interaction with H2O2, and its presence could be confirmed by UV-vis spectroscopy which has an absorption peak at 385 nm. The absorbance at 385 nm was found to be linearly related to time, and when the absorbance and the increasing rate of absorbance (k) increased, the catalytic performance of TS-1 enhanced.