The role of iron species in Egyptian kaolin ore in the conversion of isopropanol over some zeolites prepared from the ore Original Research Article

The present study was directed to investigate the conversion of isopropanol over some kinds of zeolites such as A, P and X which originally prepared from Egyptian kaolin ore containing about 1.5% of iron species. The position of iron in either kaolin or different zeolites was investigated using ESR technique which showed that iron exists in zeolites in two main positions either in the framework position replacing Al found in tetrahedral position or in ion exchanging one. The presence of iron in the prepared zeolites showed higher selectivity for the dehydrogenation process with respect to the dehydration one. The role of each site of iron was discussed in the light of conversion results. Ion exchanging zeolite with calcium ions affects mainly the selectivity of zeolite. The effect of ion exchange was studied in both aspects for dehydrogenation and dehydration.