Non-oxidative conversion of methane over a Mo/HZSM-5 catalyst

The paper investigates the effects of an additional mesoporous structure on the physicochemical, textural, and catalytic properties of a Mo/HZSM-5 catalyst for methane dehydroaromatization. The mesoporous structure was generated by adding carbon black P354 during the synthesis of a ZSM-5 zeolite; this carbon was removed during the subsequent calcination of the sample. The catalyst consisted of 0.5–1.0 mm pellets that were prepared by molding a zeolite powder into tablets followed by their grinding and sifting through sieves. The paper describes the results of an investigation into the methane dehydroaromatization kinetics, as well as relevant data obtained by X-ray fluorescence, IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, low- temperature nitrogen adsorption, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The addition of carbon black during the zeolite synthesis was demonstrated to improve the catalytic activity, with respect to aromatic production, and performance stability in non-oxidative methane conversion