Cadmium Modified HZSM-5: A Highly Efficient Catalyst for Selective Transformation of Methanol to Aromatics

Cadmium modified HZSM-5 catalyst (Cd/ZSM-5) prepared by incipient wetness impregnation shows markedly high selectivity of aromatics and low selectivity of light alkanes and C5–C9 nonaromatics in the methanol-to-aromatics (MTA) transformation. The majority of the introduced Cd cations can exchange with protons of the bridged hydroxyl groups of HZSM-5, leading to a reduced number of Brønsted acid sites while generating new Lewis acid sites on the catalysts. The selectivity of aromatics with the Cd/ZSM-5 is found to be linearly correlated with the concentration of the strong Lewis acid sites. Compared to Zn/ZSM-5, the most extensively investigated catalyst thus far for the MTA, Cd/ZSM-5 is found to be more effective in promoting the aromatics formation. The different catalytic behavior observed for Cd/ZSM-5 and Zn/ZSM-5 catalysts is most likely due to the difference in ionic radius of Cd and Zn.