¹³C CP/MAS and²H NMR study of tert-butyl alcohol dehydration on H-ZSM-5 zeolite. Evidence for the formation of tert-butyl cation and tert-butyl silyl ether intermediates

Abstract

The dehydration reaction of tert-butyl alcohol, selectively labelled with¹³C in CH₃ or C-O groups (t-BuOH[2−¹³C₂] andt−BuOH[1-¹³C]), as well as selectively deuterated in methyl groups (t-BuOH[2-²H₉]), was studied on H-ZSM-5 zeolite simultaneously with¹³ C CP/MAS and²H solid state NMR. When adsorbed and dehydrated on zeolite at 296 K,t-BuOH[2−¹³C₁] andt-BuOH[1−¹³C] give rise to identical₁₃C CP/MAS NMR spectra of oligomeric aliphatic products. This is explained in terms of the fast isomerization of the tert-butyl hydrocarbon skeleton via the formation of tert-butyl cation as the key reaction intermediate. An alkoxide species, most probably tert-butyl silyl ether (t-BuSE), was also detected as the “side” reaction intermediate. This intermediate was stable within the temperature range 296–373 K and decomposed at 448 K to produce additional amounts of final reaction products, i.e. butene oligomers. NMR data point to the existence of equilibria between the initial tert-butyl alcohol, tert-butyl cation and butene that is formed from the intermediate carbocation.