Effect of P-Al/NaX Structure and Acid-Base Control on the Side.Chain Alkylation of Toluene with Methanol

P-Al/NaX catalyst was in-situ synthesized by hydrothermal method, and its acidity and basicity were controlled by impregnation of NaOH, and its catalytic performance for side-chain alkylation of toluene with methanol was tested. Combined with the characterizations of X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), N-2 adsorption-desorption, and the catalytic activity data, it was found that the structure of the synthesized Na13Al24Si13P11O96 center dot H2O showed good catalytic performance of side-chain alkylation of toluene with methanol after in-situ loading of P and Al. With the NaOH loading increasing, the selectivity of ethylbenzene and styrene increased first and then decreased. When the NaOH loading (mass fraction) was 9%, the selectivity of styrene was the highest (45.84%), and the total yield of ethylbenzene and styrene reached 63.08%. This may be because the loading of NaOH was conducive to the increase of the number of strong alkaline sites and weak acidic sites, and the high number of strong alkaline sites and weak acidic sites were conducive to the side chain alkylation of toluene with methanol.