Effect of Acid Properties of Fluorinated Beta and ZSM-5 Zeolites Used as Supports of Ni Catalysts for the Catalytic Hydrodeoxygenation of Guaiacol

Commercial NH4-Beta and Na-ZSM-5 zeolites were fluorinated with different amounts of NH4F and using different procedures (room temperature, conventional refluxing, microwave refluxing). Samples were characterized by XRD, N2 physisorption, FTIR, 1H NMR, SEM-EDS, and TGA of adsorbed cyclohexylamine. An increase in the concentration of NH4F led to fluorinated zeolites with higher surface areas and slightly lower amounts of Brønsted acid sites due to some dealumination. Fluorination by conventional or microwave refluxing at shorter times did not dealuminate ZSM-5, resulting in the formation of higher particle sizes. Ni/fluorinated beta catalysts were more active than Ni/fluorinated ZSM-5 catalysts for the hydrodeoxygenation of guaiacol at 180 °C and 15 bar of H2 for 1 h due to their higher amount of acid sites. The appropriate proportion of metallic and Brønsted acid centers allowed for the selective obtention of cyclohexane (58%) for the Ni supported on beta fluorinated with NH4F 0.1 M catalyst. The combination of this fluorinated beta to a Ni/ordered mesoporous carbon catalyst significantly boosted its selectivity to cyclohexane from 0 to 65%. Fluorinated ZSM-5 samples, although having stronger Brønsted acid sites, as observed by 1H NMR, they had lower amounts, leading to higher selectivity to cyclohexanol when used as catalytic supports.