New Theoretical Insights into the Contributions of Poly(methylbenzene) and Alkene Cycles to the Methanol to Propene Process in H-FAU Zeolite

The contributions of the poly(methylbenzene) (polyMB) and alkene cycles to the methanol to propene (MTP) process in H-FAU zeolite have been investigated by a two-layer ONIOM (our own n-layered integrated molecular orbital and molecular mechanics) method, which is important to understand the nature of formation of propene in zeolite with large pore sizes. The calculated results demonstrate that the different pathways in the polyMB cycle occur in the following order of reactivity: methyl-transfer pathway > spiro pathway > direct internal H-shift > paring pathway. The polyMB cycle is more competitive than the alkene cycle for the MTP process in H-FAU, which is different from the previous results on H-ZSM-5. Introduction of Li+ and Ag+ cations into FAU zeolite does not reduce the free energy barriers of the methylation steps involved in polyMB and alkene cycles, indicating that the experimental efforts to improve propene selectivity probably should focus on the physical effect of Li+ and Ag+ cations. For the ...