High-throughput Screening of Quaternary Oxide Catalysts for Friedel-Crafts Reaction

Oxides of ternary systems such as Al–W–Si and Si–W–Nb were designed by simplex lattice design and synthesized in parallel in test tubes by the citric acid method. The Friedel-Crafts reaction for benzylation of anisole was conducted in parallel at 150°C in the test tubes. Non-linear regression of the activity to the oxide composition was conducted using the support vector machine to determine the response surfaces of the activity. Such rapid library synthesis and high-throughput screening were then applied to the quaternary system of Si–W–Nb–Al oxides to discover the synergies within the quaternary system and the optimum compositions for high activity. Si62Al31W7 oxide showed the highest activity comparable to that of H-type mordenite zeolite.