Effect of hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) on titanium distribution of TS-1 zeolite

The hydrolysis process of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) was tracked by FT-IR analysis, and the effect of hydrolysis time on the distribution of titanium species in TS-1 zeolites was discussed through XRF and UV-vis. The catalytic oxidation performance of TS-1 zeolite was tested by 1-hexene epoxidation as a model reaction. The results show that moderate hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate can effectively inhibit the formation of extra-framework Ti and increase the content of framework Ti. However, shorter or longer hydrolysis time is not conducive to the entry of titanium into the skeleton and reduce the catalytic performance of TS-1 zeolites. TS-1 prepared with 2 h TEOS hydrolysis time has the best catalytic performance for epoxidation of 1-hexene. Under the reaction conditions of atmospheric pressure and 60 °C, the conversion of 1-hexene can reach 37.5% and the selectivity of 1,2-epoxy hexane can maintain at about 85%, and the result has a guiding role for the development of olefin epoxidation catalyst.