Catalytic Methylation of Aromatic Hydrocarbons using CO2/H2 over Re/TiO2 and H‐MOR Catalysts

Abstract A combined catalyst comprising TiO 2 ‐supported Re (Re(1)/TiO 2 ; Re=1 wt%) and H‐MOR (SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 =90) was found to promote the methylation of benzene using CO 2 and H 2 . This catalytic system exhibited high performance with regard to the synthesis of methylated benzenes and gave high yields of total methylated products (up to 52 % benzene‐based yield and 42 % CO 2 ‐based yield) under the reaction conditions employed in this study ( p CO2 =1 MPa; p H2 =5 MPa; T =250 °C; t =20 h) in a batch reactor. Catalyst screening demonstrated that a combination of Re(1)/TiO 2 and H‐MOR (SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 =90) exhibited superior performance compared to other combinations of supported metal catalysts and zeolites in terms of both yield and selectivity for methylated benzenes.