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.