Isomorphous substitution of Mn(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) in AlPO-31 molecular sieves and study of their catalytic performance

Isomorphously substituted molecular sieves, MAPO-31, NAPO-31 and ZAPO-31, were prepared under mild hydrothermal conditions from gels containing sources of aluminium, phosphorus, appropriate metal and dipropylamine (DPA), presumably acting as a structure-directing template. They were characterized by XRD, FTIR, TGA, inductively coupled plasma (ICP), ESR, Brunauer, Emmett, Teller (BET) and diffusion reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) techniques. In the XRD, the peak at 2θ = 16.7° of the metal substituted AlPO-31 is more intense than that of pure AlPO-31 suggesting preferential occupation of the plane corresponding to it as compared to other planes. The O-H stretch in the IR spectra of the metal-substituted molecular sieves is blue-shifted with respect to the parent AlPO-31 molecular sieves possibly due to metal substitution. Theg values obtained from the ESR spectra of MAPO-31 and NAPO-31 also substantiate framework substitution. Ethylation of toluene was carried out between 300 and 450°C over the above catalysts as a model test reaction. The high toluene conversion over metal-substituted molecular sieves proves the isomorphic substitution of metal ions in the AlPO-31 framework.