Catalyst for cumene hydroperoxide decomposition and process for preparation thereof

Abstract

The present invention relates to a catalyst for cumene hydroperoxide decomposition, wherein said catalyst has good efficacy, provides good decomposition of cumene hydroperoxide and good selectivity to main products, provides high yield percentage of alpha methyl styrene, and reduces the formation of unwanted byproducts. Said catalyst comprises zeolite beta, wherein said catalyst has the following characteristics: a) the mole ratio of silica to alumina is from 30 to 100; and b) the peak area ratio obtained from the analysis using 27Al magic angle spinning-nuclear magnetic resonance (27Al MAS-NMR) technique according to the following relation: (A+C+D)/B is from 0.1 to 0.3; wherein A, B, C, and D are the peak area at the peak position from 44 but less than 54 ppm, the peak area at the peak position from 54 to 58 ppm, the peak area at the peak position greater than 58 to 64 ppm, and the peak area at the peak position from −10 to 5 ppm, respectively, by the peak deconvolution analysis with Lorentz/Gauss function under the condition that the minimum distance between peaks for independent integration (AZFW) is equal to 0.5 ppm. Moreover, this invention relates to a preparation process of the catalyst comprising the step of contacting zeolite beta with polycarboxylic acid solution and calcination at the temperature in the range from 400 to 700° C., wherein said polycarboxylic acid has the pKa of the first dissociation from 1.5 to 3.5 and has the molecular structure with at least one side having size larger than 6 Å. This invention also relates to a process for cumene hydroperoxide decomposition using said catalyst or catalyst prepared from said preparation process of the catalyst.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.