Critical review on the active site structure of sulfated zirconia catalysts and prospects in fuel production

Abstract This article critically reviews the literature on sulfated zirconia catalysts for variety of important hydrocarbon and oxygenate reactions including ethylene dimerization, isomerization, alkylation and esterification. The catalyst synthesis method-resulting molecular structure relationships, stability and reactive transformations of the active site in response to gas phase environment, reaction mechanisms, reaction intermediates, the corresponding kinetics and effect of some popular promoters are covered. Key structural features of the active sites have been extensively investigated but the conclusive structure is yet to be determined due to the diversity of the preparation methods (nature and crystallinity of the support, sulfate deposition method, sulfate coverage) as well as the diversity of the experimental conditions used during the spectroscopic determination. Similarly, the effect of the promoters and the synergistic effects of the promoter/sulfate sites in the presence of hydrocarbons are not well-defined. Finally, multiple theories exist for the reactive mechanisms on sulfated zirconia but most rely on the homogeneous reaction mechanisms, such as those for ethylene dimerization and butane alkylation with butane. Collectively, these show the lack of a fundamental understanding and the need of modern catalysis studies of this important catalytic system.