friedel−crafts alkylation of benzene over al-based mil-53

The solvothermal method was used to synthesize mil-53(al) at 120 °c. synthesized catalysts was characterized using x-ray diffraction, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscope, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, brunauer−emmett−teller and nh3-temperature-programmed desorption. synthesized mil-53(al) was used to perform alkylation of benzene with ethanol in a gas phase laboratory reactor. activity tests revealed that mil-53(al) illustrates good performance with 67% conversion of benzene, 98% conversion of ethanol, and 63% selectivity for ethyl benzene at 200 °c. the main byproduct is identified as toluene, and other byproducts are detected in very small amount. the catalyst shows good stability after 14 h time on stream at 200 °c. the high activity and product selectivity of mil-53(al) are attributed to proper acidity of catalytic sites.