Quantitative Measurement of the Brönsted Acid Sites in Solid Acids: Toward a Single-Site Design of Mo-Modified ZSM-5 Zeolite

On the basis of our previous H/D exchange studies devoted to the quantification of the number of Brönsted acid sites in solid acids, we report here an innovative approach to determine both the amount and the localization of Mo atoms inside the Mo/ZSM-5 catalyst, commonly used for the methane dehydroaromatization reaction. The influence of Mo introduction in the MFI framework was studied by means of BET, X-ray diffraction, 27Al magic angle spinning NMR, NH3 temperature-programmed desorption, and H/D isotopic exchange techniques. A dependence was found between the decrease of acidic OH groups and the Mo content. Depending on the Si/Al ratio of the zeolite, i.e., the proximity of two Brönsted acid sites, the Mo atoms substitute a different number of OH groups. Consequently, a chemical structure was proposed to describe the geometry of the Mo complex in the channels of the ZSM-5 zeolite.