Atmospheric pressure synthesis of nanosized ZSM-5 with enhanced catalytic performance for methanol to aromatics reaction

We report, for the first time, an atmospheric pressure synthetic route for nanosized ZSM-5 with 100% yield by decoupling its nucleation and growth process. Under unsealed conditions, abundant crystal nuclei are first formed in the liquid phase and then grow into nanosized ZSM-5 via an improved steam-assisted conversion method using superheated steam as the medium at atmospheric pressure. The obtained nanosized ZSM-5 possesses excellent texture properties, such as high crystallinity, large surface area, tunable Si/Al molar ratio, and uniform size, and exhibits far longer lifetime as well as higher selectivity of total aromatics in the catalytic conversion of methanol to aromatics compared with conventional ZSM-5. This facile route can offer a very promising future for the large-scale preparation of zeolites by a safe and continuous process under atmospheric pressure.