Morphology controlled synthesis of ZSM-5 and enhanced catalytic activity in polypropylene hydrocracking--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Wang, Z., Gao, L., Zhang, Y., Zhang, X., & Zhang, B. (2026). Morphology controlled synthesis of ZSM-5 and enhanced catalytic activity in polypropylene hydrocracking. Particuology, 108, 272-279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2025.11.016

Morphology controlled synthesis of ZSM-5 and enhanced catalytic activity in polypropylene hydrocracking

Ziru Wang^{a b}, Li Gao^{a c}, Ying Zhang^{a d}, Xia Zhang^b *, Bingsen Zhang^{a c *}

a Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China
b Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China
c School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Shenyang, 110016, China
d School of Petrochemical Engineering, Liaoning Petrochemical University, Fushun, 113001, China

10.1016/j.partic.2025.11.016

Volume 108, January 2026, Pages 272-279

Received 23 October 2025, Revised 19 November 2025, Accepted 20 November 2025, Available online 28 November 2025, Version of Record 5 December 2025.

E-mail: xzhang@mail.neu.edu.cn; bszhang@imr.ac.cn

Highlights

• Adjusting structure guide agent ratio precisely regulates ZSM-5 zeolite nucleation and crystal morphology.

• Two distinct ZSM-5 zeolites (n-ZSM-5 and s-ZSM-5) were synthesized with enhanced surface acid site density.

• n-ZSM-5 optimizes mass transfer, achieving 57.3 % liquid yield in plastic hydrocracking with controllable properties.

Abstract

ZSM-5 zeolite has emerged as an outstanding catalyst in converting waste plastics into high-value chemicals. Constructing hierarchical micro-mesoporous ZSM-5 can significantly enhance diffusion characteristics and consequently improve catalytic cracking performance. The morphology of ZSM-5 plays a crucial role in altering its catalytic hydrocracking efficiency in plastic degradation, but the reasons behind this is not clear. Herein, by precisely adjusting the structure-directing agent (SDA) ratio to control nucleation dynamics, we have developed a morphology-controlled synthesis strategy for ZSM-5 zeolites. Two distinct hierarchical ZSM-5 catalysts were successfully fabricated: plate-shaped n-ZSM-5 and quasi-spherical s-ZSM-5. And, increasing the SDA content was worked in promoting nucleation kinetics, facilitating the incorporation of active components into the zeolite framework, and increasing surface acid site density. The plate-shaped n-ZSM-5 exhibited exceptional catalytic performance in polypropylene hydrocracking with a liquid yield of 57.3 %, and proved to maintain effective activity for the actual conversion of plastic waste. The catalytic mechanism reveals that the morphology engineering can effectively regulate mass transport within catalyst pores, provide a novel approach for tailoring zeolite catalyst properties. This work offers fundamental insights into structure-performance relationships for advanced plastic upcycling catalysts.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Plastic upcycling; Catalytic hydrocracking; Polypropylene; Liquid fuel; Zeolites

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