Effect of ultrasound on the kinetics of cation exchange in NaX zeolite

Improved modification of clinoptilolite with silver using ultrasonic radiation

The modification of natural clinoptilolite with silver ions using ultrasound has been investigated in the current work. The modification process was performed using clinoptilolite of different fractions (0-3.0 mm) over the temperature range of 25-55 °C, ultrasonic power range of 8.0-12.5 W and AgNO₃ concentration range of 0.01-0.1 M. The zeolite modification was performed in the presence of sonication and mechanical stirring in separate runs for comparison. Fundamental analysis demonstrated that the use of ultrasound ensures desorption of air from clinoptilolite particles and accelerates the diffusion of Ag⁺ ions and subsequent ion exchange. Increasing the particle size of clinoptilolite led to a natural decrease in its sorption capacity. A slight increase in the sorption capacity with an increase in the equivalent particle diameter from 0.081 to 0.35 mm was seen due to changes in the structure of clinoptilolite particles during mechanical grinding. The calculated temperature coefficient of the sorption process of Ag⁺ ions as <1.47 means that the modification takes place with dominant control in the intradiffusion region. Increasing the power of ultrasonic irradiation did not provide a monotonous change in the sorption capacity of clinoptilolite. Increasing the concentration of argentum nitrate solution provided an increase in the content of silver ions in clinoptilolite. In general, the advantage of using ultrasonic vibrations to modify the natural clinoptilolite of different fractions with Ag⁺ ions was demonstrated in terms of achieving higher sorption capacity, also elucidating the effect of different operating conditions.

Ultrasound-Assisted Preparation of Mo/ZSM-5 Zeolite Catalyst for Non-Oxidative Methane Dehydroaromatization

The activity and selectivity of Mo/ZSM-5, benchmarking catalyst for the non-oxidative dehydroaromatization of methane, strongly depend on the cluster size, spatial distribution, and chemical environment of the Mo-based active sites. This study discloses the use of an ultrasound-assisted ion-exchange (US-IE) technique as an alternative Mo/ZSM-5 synthesis procedure in order to promote metal dispersion along the zeolite framework. For this purpose, a plate transducer (91.8 kHz) is employed to transmit the ultrasonic irradiation (US) into the ion-exchange reactor. The physico-chemical properties and catalytic activity of samples prepared under the said irradiation procedure and traditional impregnation (IWI) method are critically evaluated. Characterization results suggest that US neither affects the crystalline structure nor the particle size of the parent zeolite. However, US-IE promotes molybdenum species dispersion, avoids clustering at the external fresh zeolite surface and enhances molybdate species anchoring to the zeolite framework with respect to IWI. Despite the improved metal dispersion, the catalytic activity between catalysts synthesized by US-IE and IWI is comparable. This suggests that the sole initial dispersion enhancement does not suffice to boost the catalyst productivity and further actions such ZSM-5 support and catalyst pre-conditioning are required. Nevertheless, the successful implementation of US-IE and the resulting metal dispersion enhancement pave the way toward the application of this technique to the synthesis of other dispersed catalysts and materials of interest.

CuY zeolite catalysts prepared by ultrasonication-assisted ion-exchange for oxidative carbonylation of methanol to dimethyl carbonate

The influence of ultrasonication treatment on the catalytic performance of CuY zeolite catalysts was investigated for the liquid-phase oxidative carbonylation of methanol to dimethyl carbonate (DMC). The deammoniation method of NH₄Y into HY zeolites was optimized and characterized by elemental analyzer, derivative thermogravimetry, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analyzer, and powder X-ray diffractometry, revealing that the HY zeolite deammoniated at 400 °C presented the highest surface area, complete ammonium/proton ion exchange, and no structure collapse, rendering it the best support from all the prepared zeolites. CuY zeolites were prepared via aqueous phase ion exchange with the aid of ultrasonication. Upon ultrasonication, the Cu⁺ active centers were uniformly dispersed in the Y zeolites, penetrating the core of the zeolite particles in a very short time. In addition to enhancing the Cu dispersity, the ultrasonication treatment influenced the BET surface area, acid amount, Cu⁺/Cu²⁺ ratio, and also had a relatively small impact on the Cu loading. Consequently, adequate exposure to ultrasonication was able to increase the conversion rate of methanol into dimethyl carbonate up to 11.4% with a comparable DMC selectivity of 23.7%. This methanol conversion is 2.65 times higher than that obtained without the ultrasonication treatment.

Intensification of ion exchange desorption of thiamine diphosphate by low-powered ultrasound

The process of ultrasound-assisted ion-exchange desorption of cocarboxylase (thiamine diphosphate (TDP)) from a strong acidic cation resin was studied. Kinetics studies revealed that ultrasound accelerates TDP desorption by 3 times. The optimal desorption parameters, viz. US power input, sonication time, eluent/resin ratio and the eluent (ammonium acetate buffer) concentration were established which were 15mW/cm³, 20min, 1:1 and 1M, respectively. The resin stability studies showed that the optimal ultrasonic power was less by the order than the resin degradation threshold which ensures durable and efficient resin exploitation during production. The resin sorption capacity remained unchanged even after 20 cycles of TDP sorption, ultrasonic desorption and resin regeneration. The recovery ratio of TDP was shown to increase non-linearly with decreasing the resin saturation factor, which can be attributed to diffusion limitations occurring during desorption. The optimal resin loading corresponding to more than 90 per cent of TDP recovery was found to be at the level of 10 per cent of the maximal sorption capacity. The study revealed 4-5-fold increase in concentrations of the recovered solutions, which together with process times shortening should result in considerable energy saving in downstream operations on production scale.