Role of Water in Diethyl Ether Dehydration Reaction

Abstract

The study examined catalytic conversion of diethyl ether in a gas phase in the static system on the synthetic mordenite (NaM) and the mordenite which the bivalent cobalt cation was introduced into (CoM). The reaction was observed in the temperature range from 424 K to 653 K, and the reaction products on both catalysts were ethene and water, and on NaM a small quantity of butene.
The reaction of diethyl ether dehydration in the observed temperature interval is accelerate in time. The initial reaction is registered at the very beginning of the reaction followed by the water occurrence. The water originating from the reaction is generated on the surface of the zeolite catalyst the active centers that is favorable for the dehydration reaction. With the temperature growth the initial period on NaM catalyst gradually disappears and the reaction becomes the first order reaction (temperature is 653 K), while on CoM catalyst the initial period is registered at all observed temperatures. The explanation of the role of water in the occurrence of active centers needed for diethyl ether hydrolysis was obtained by experiments in which water was also added to the reaction mixture of diethyl ether – catalyst.