Activity-acidity relationship for alkane cracking over zeolites: n-hexane cracking over HZSM-5

The acidity and the catalytic activity for n-hexane cracking of three related HZSM-5 catalysts have been determined. A method is described for obtaining the distribution of acid strength by deconvoluting ammonia TPD spectra and it is shown that a linear relationship exists between the enthalpy of the reaction and the activation energy for the desorption of ammonia.