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Silver-modified zeolites have demonstrated promising properties for hydrocarbon feedstock valorization and the oxidation of organic compounds. Within the frame of the scientific interest for selective oxidation of light alkenes on metal-modified zeolites, the transformation of propene on Ag/H-ZSM-5 zeolite in the presence of molecular oxygen has been monitored by 13C (CP) MAS NMR spectroscopy at 296–773 K. Silver-allyl intermediate species have been detected by 13C CP/MAS NMR, indicating that Ag+ sites are involved in propene transformation. It is assumed that oxygen and propene compete for the Ag+ adsorption sites, thus prompting propene adsorption on zeolite Brønsted acid sites (BAS) and its further transformation by oligomerization and conjunct polymerization. Among the products of propene oxidation by molecular oxygen, only carbon dioxide has been detected by 13C MAS NMR, implying high activity of Ag/H-ZSM-5 in alkene total oxidation. It is thus inferred that silver-modified zeolite is not a promising catalyst for propene selective oxidation to propene oxide and carbonyl group containing organics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) attract interest as potential catalysts whose catalytic properties are driven by defects. Several methods have been proposed for the defects‐inducing synthesis of MOFs. However, the active species formed on the defective sites remain elusive and uncharacterized, as the spectroscopic fingerprints of these species are hidden by the regular structure signals. In this work, we have performed the synthesis of ZIF‐8 MOF with defect‐inducing procedures using fully deuterated 2‐methylimidazolate ligands to enhance the defective sites′ visibility. By combining 1H and 31P MAS NMR spectroscopy and X‐ray absorption spectroscopy, we have found evidence for the presence of different structural hydroxyl Zn−OH groups in the ZIF‐8 materials. It is demonstrated that the ZIF‐8 defect sites are represented by Zn−OH hydroxyl groups with the signals at 0.3 and −0.7 ppm in the 1H MAS NMR spectrum. These species are of basic nature and may be responsible for the catalytic activity of the ZIF‐8 material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

67Zn MAS NMR spectroscopy was used to characterize the state of Zn in Zn-modified zeolites ZSM-5. Two 67Zn enriched zeolite samples were prepared: by solid-state exchange with metal 67Zn (Zn2+/ZSM-5 sample) and by ion exchange with zinc formate solution (ZnO/H-ZSM-5 sample), both containing ca. 3.8 wt% Zn. The elemental analysis, TEM, and quantitative BAS and aluminum analyses with 1H and 27Al MAS NMR have shown that Zn2+/ZSM-5 contains zinc in the form of Zn2+ cations, while both ZnO species and Zn2+ cations are present in ZnO/H-ZSM-5 besides BAS. 67Zn MAS NMR has detected the signal of Zn in a tetrahedral environment from ZnO species for both the activated and hydrated ZnO/H-ZSM-5 zeolite. The signal of Zn in an octahedral environment was detected for the hydrated Zn2+/ZSM-5 and ZnO/H-ZSM-5 zeolites. This signal may belong to zinc cation [HOZn]+ or Zn(OH)2 species surrounded by water molecules. Quantitative 67Zn MAS NMR analysis has shown that only 27 and 38% of zinc loaded in the zeolite is visible for the activated and hydrated ZnO/H-ZSM-5 zeolite, and 24% of Zn is visible for the hydrated Zn2+/ZSM-5. Zinc in the form of ZnO species is entirely visible in both the activated and hydrated ZnO/H-ZSM-5 zeolite, while Zn2+ cations are not detected at all for the activated sample and only 29% of Zn2+ cations is visible for the hydrated zeolite. Detection of only a part of Zn2+ cations in the form of [HOZn]+ or Zn(OH)2 species in octahedral environment presumes only partial hydrolysis of the bond of Zn2+ cation with framework oxygen and further solvation of the Zn species formed at hydrolysis by the adsorbed water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kinetics of H/D hydrogen exchange between deuterated isobutane‐d10 and Brønsted acid sites (BAS) of three zeolite samples (H‐BEA, ZnO/H‐BEA, Zn2+/H‐BEA) were monitored with 1H MAS NMR in situ at 343–468 K. The regioselective H/D exchange in the methyl groups detected on H‐BEA can be rationalized in terms of the mechanism of indirect exchange, which involves protonation of the intermediate olefin and further hydride abstraction from the other alkane molecule by the formed carbenium ion. Loading of Zn species in the zeolite results in a decrease of the rate and an increase of the activation energy of the exchange. The loaded Zn species provide the tuning effect on the reaction occurrence, changing the mechanism from the indirect one to the mechanism of the direct exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

13C MAS NMR spectroscopy is a powerful technique to study the mechanisms of hydrocarbon transformations on heterogeneous catalysts. It can reliably identify the surface intermediates and the adsorbed products based on the analysis of their 13C chemical shifts, δ(13C). However, the unambiguous assignment of the detected signals is always a challenge due to the uncertainty of the nature of the surface intermediates formed and the mechanism of adsorbed species interaction with active sites. The way to solve this problem is the application of DFT calculations to predict chemical shifts for the expected intermediate hydrocarbon species. Herein, the methodology for δ(13C) chemical shift calculations for adsorbed species has been proposed. It includes: (i) zeolite framework optimization with periodic DFT (pPBE); (ii) medium-sized cluster geometry optimization with hybrid GGA (PBE0), and (iii) σ(13C) values calculation followed by δ(13C) estimation using the linear regression method. It is inferred that the TPSS/cc-pVTZ method provides the best computational cost/accuracy ratio for the set of adsorbed hydrocarbon species that was previously detected experimentally on the surface of Zn-containing zeolites. The drawbacks of the computation method have also been revealed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reactivity theories and characterization studies for metal-containing zeolites are often focused on probing the metal sites. We present a detailed computational study of the reactivity of Zn-modified BEA zeolite towards C–H bond activation of the methane molecule as a model system that highlights the importance of representing the active site as the whole reactive ensemble integrating the extra-framework ZnEF2+ cations, framework oxygens (OF2−), and the confined space of the zeolite pores. We demonstrate that for our model system the relationship between the Lewis acidity, defined by the probe molecule adsorption energy, and the activation energy for methane C–H bond cleavage performs with a determination coefficient R2 = 0.55. This suggests that the acid properties of the localized extra-framework cations can be used only for a rough assessment of the reactivity of the cations in the metal-containing zeolites. In turn, studying the relationship between the activation energy and pyrrole adsorption energy revealed a correlation, with R2 = 0.80. This observation was accounted for by the similarity between the local geometries of the pyrrole adsorption complexes and the transition states for methane C–H bond cleavage. The inclusion of a simple descriptor for zeolite local confinement allows transferability of the obtained property–activity relations to other zeolite topologies. Our results demonstrate that the representation of the metal cationic species as a synergistically cooperating active site ensembles allows reliable detection of the relationship between the acid properties and reactivity of the metal cation in zeolite materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]