Rare earth metal modified NaY: Structure and catalytic performance for lactic acid dehydration to acrylic acid

Enhancing catalytic dehydration performance of lactic acid to acrylic acid was acquired on NaY zeolites modified by rare earth metals (lanthanum, cerium, samarium, and europium). Compared with unmodified NaY catalyst, the modified catalysts with lanthanide had better catalytic performance, the optimum modified metal was lanthanum and the optimum content was 2 wt%. The structure characterization results showed that the addition of lanthanum ion had changed catalyst physical performance such as decreased surface acidity density, increased specific surface area, and enlarged pore size. Moreover, lanthanum ion located in specific position (solidate cage) had resulted in special crystal cell distortion, which might affect lactic acid adsorption and reaction path and finally contribute to higher acrylic acid selectivity.