What do we know about the acidity of solid acids?

Abstract

With a proper understanding of the nature of solid acidity, zeolites and other solid acids have great potential for replacing homogeneous acids in a wide range of catalytic applications. This paper describes results from our laboratory on the characterization and description of the acid sites in high‐silica zeolites, especially H‐MFI. A crucial observation from this work is the identification of stoichiometric adsorption complexes, one molecule per framework Al, for a wide range of adsorbates, including amines, alcohols, nitriles, ketones, and thiols. Examples are given in which temperature‐programmed desorption is used to identify these complexes and characterize their initial chemistries. Calorimetric measurements on the 1:1 complexes have been used to compare the enthalpies of protonation in the zeolite to enthalpies of protonation in the gas phase and in aqueous phase and to demonstrate that a gas‐phase basis provides better predictive capabilities. The issue of carbenium‐ion stabilities is discussed, as well as the unusual catalytic properties of acid sites formed by framework substitution of Fe. The effect of sorption and cavity size on reactions is described. Finally, the problems associated with trying to define or characterize solid acids by using ammonia TPD or ¹³C NMR isotropic shifts of ketones without proper consideration of the complicated nature of these techniques are discussed.