Catalytic nanosponges of acidic aluminosilicates for plastic degradation and CO<sub>2</sub> to fuel conversion.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32737304.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-17711-6 and PMC identifier 7395177.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The synthesis of solid acids with strong zeolite-like acidity and textural properties like amorphous aluminosilicates (ASAs) is still a challenge. In this work, we report the synthesis of amorphous "acidic aluminosilicates (AAS)", which possesses Brønsted acidic sites like in zeolites and textural properties like ASAs. AAS catalyzes different reactions (styrene oxide ring-opening, vesidryl synthesis, Friedel-Crafts alkylation, jasminaldehyde synthesis, m-xylene isomerization, and cumene cracking) with better performance than state-of-the-art zeolites and amorphous aluminosilicates. Notably, AAS efficiently converts a range of waste plastics to hydrocarbons at significantly lower temperatures. A Cu-Zn-Al/AAS hybrid shows excellent performance for CO<sub>2</sub> to fuel conversion with 79% selectivity for dimethyl ether. Conventional and DNP-enhanced solid-state NMR provides a molecular-level understanding of the distinctive Brønsted acidic sites of these materials. Due to their unique combination of strong acidity and accessibility, AAS will be a potential alternative to zeolites.