Insight into the mechanisms of the ethylbenzene disproportionation: transition state shape selectivity on zeolites

The direct experimental evidence shows that ethylbenzene disproportionation is a transition state shape selective reaction on zeolites: a bimolecular reaction mechanism via diphenylethane-mediated pathway on large-pore zeolites X and Y (ca. 0.74 nm) and a monomolecular reaction mechanism on medium-pore zeolites ZSM-5 (ca. 0.56 nm) via the ethoxy-mediated intermolecular ethyl group transfer. The lifetime of bulky diphenylethane species was prolonged by a fine-tune of FAU-zeolites, which makes this transition state detectable by 13C MAS NMR spectroscopy. Due to tunable catalytic properties and pore shapes, zeolites are promising catalysts toward emulating the efficiency and selectivity in desired reactions.