Sulfated zirconia: attempt to use n-butylamine to measure acidity Original Research Article

Efforts to measure Brønsted acidity using the chemisorption of n-butyl amine and quantifying the number of Brønsted sites as being equal to the butenes and the ammonia formed during temperature-programmed heating was unsuccessful. Rather, it was observed that even at ambient temperature, chemisorption of n-butyl amine was accompanied by oxidation/reduction reactions that produced water, CO2 and oxides of sulfur. The results suggest that oxidation/reduction reactions initiate the conversion of hydrocarbons by this catalyst at low temperatures.