Laura Löbbert

PhD student

Catalysis Research Center and Chemistry Department

Technische Universität München

Lichtenbergstraße 4

85748 Garching, Germany

Curriculum

Designing Zeolite Constraints for the Dimerization of 1-Butene into Linear Octenes

Light linear and monobranched olefins have attracted growing industrial attention as a basic feedstock and important intermediate in the production of polyethene and plasticizers. Butene dimerization on heterogeneous Ni based catalysts represents an appealing route to synthesize linear octenes from undervalued cracking fractions. However, the chemical environment and the different Ni species in Ni-aluminosilicates lead to an ambiguity with respect to the nature of the elementary steps in the Cossee-Arlman dimerization mechanism. In this work, we introduce different Ni loadings into Na-FAU zeolite by ion exchange. We study the interplay of Ni, Na and Brønsted acid sites (BAS) in FAU framework, and their impact in activity and selectivity in butene dimerization. The performance will be compared to other zeolite frameworks with different constraints such as MFI and CHA. While the reason for differences in selectivity can be safely attributed to the pore size following the principle of shape selectivity, the cause for differences in activity remains unknown. In this project, we investigate the role of adsorption, coordination geometry in the transition state and alkene isomerization on the activity and selectivity of Ni-zeolite catalysts for alkene dimerization. Additionally, we plan to examine the influence of different amounts of Al pairs in the CHA framework, as it is expected to influence the Ni species as well as its environment.