Sulfated zirconia and its modified versions as promising catalysts for industrial processes

Zirconium oxide, or zirconia, when modified with anions such as sulfate ion s forms a highly acidic or superacidic catalyst depending on the treatment conditions. This catalyst is found to be well suited for catalyzing reactio ns of industrial importance, e.g. hydrocarbon isomerization, methanol conve rsion to hydrocarbons, alkylation, acylation, esterification, etherificatio n, condensation, nitration, cyclization, hydration-dehydration, carbonylati on, oligomerization, Fischer-Tropsch reaction, cracking and hydrocracking r eactions, methane oxidative coupling, thioacetalization, adamantylation, ma nufacture of hydrogen peroxide, etc. The surface properties of these cataly sts can be further modified in conjunction with noble or transition metals as promoters as well as with carbon molecular sieves. This review highlight s the chemistry and engineering aspects of sulfated zirconia catalyst and i ts modified forms. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.