Zeolite-catalysed olefin carbonylation based on tuning spatial confinement.

Zeolite FER catalyzes olefin carbonylation to primary and secondary carboxylic acids with high selectivity at high CO/olefin ratios, achieving 80% for ethylene and 95% for propylene.

• Why it matters: Understanding and improving olefin carbonylation processes is important for producing valuable acids, but current methods are limited to tertiary acids with homogeneous catalysts.
• What they did: The study used FER zeolite with a CO/olefin ratio of 360, combining experiments and theoretical calculations to identify active sites T2-O5 in 8-MR cavities for ethylene and T3-O1 in 10-MRs for propylene.
• The result: Findings suggest that spatial confinement and high CO/olefin ratios enable selective formation of primary and secondary acids, opening new avenues for zeolite-based carbonylation technologies.