The methanol-to-olefins (MTO) process is an attractive catalytic technology for converting methanol into valuable light olefins. Process efficiency and catalyst stability are however, strongly compromised by the formation of carbon deposits, so a better understanding of the mechanism of catalyst operation and eventual deactivation is required for improved catalyst design.1 Previous work using Kerr-Gated Raman spectroscopy revealed a deactivation pathway in small-pore zeolites, where polyenes accumulate and hinder molecular diffusion within the CHA topology.2 The study also pointed to a potential role of zeolite cage size and aspect ratio in polyaromatic hydrocarbon formation, initiated through polyene cyclisation within the zeolite cage.2 Herein, we build on these insights by combining operando Kerr-Gated Raman and UV-vis spectroscopies to study a series of small-pore zeolites with varied cage sizes and geometries, aiming to clarify how these structural features govern hydrocarbon formation and catalyst deactivation during MTO.
- U. Olsbye et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2012, 51, 5810-5831;
- I. Lezcano-Gonzalez et al. Nature Mater., 2020, 19, 1081-1087.
Biography
Inés Lezcano-González is a Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at The University of Manchester, and is primarily located at the Harwell Campus. Her research is focused on understanding how catalysts and reaction processes operate at the molecular level, aimed at guiding the rational design of new or improved catalyst formulations. Inés graduated in Chemical Engineering at the University of Valencia (Spain) and obtained her PhD at the Institute of Chemical Technology (ITQ-Valencia). Following a post-doctoral stay at Utrecht University (The Netherlands), she moved to UCL Chemistry as Senior Research Associate, working on the development and application of in situ and operando methods in catalysis.