Positive effect of secondary structure creation in mordenites on alkylation of benzene with 1-tetradecene

•Creation of significant mesopore structure in mordenite after different dealumination•Conversion of 1-tetradecene increased with increasing mesoporous surface area.•Conversion of 1-tetradecene increased regardless of lower total acidity.•Selectivity to 2-isomer had very high value about 80% at near 100% of conversion.

The liquid-phase alkylation of benzene with 1-tetradecene was realized over dealuminated mordenites with different mesoporous surface areas and three different levels of acidity. The mordenite catalysts were characterized by N2-sorption, FTIR pyridine adsorption, and TPDA. The number of Brønsted acid sites decreases; however, it represents a higher proportion of the total acidity. Alkylation results demonstrated that the mordenite activity in alkylation accelerated with increasing mesoporous surface area in spite of the lower total acidity. This fact indicates that the accessibility of acid sites and the internal mass transport in mordenite channels play a significant role in liquid-phase alkylation of aromatics with 1-alkenes.