Synthesis of impregnated Ni(0) zeolite ZSM-5 as catalyst for carboxylation reaction of acetylene with CO₂

Conversion of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into other compounds has become very advantageous because of the abundance in the atmosphere. However, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is thermodynamically and kinetically stable so it needs low valence metal such as Ni(0) to be activated and react with other compounds. In this study, nickel metal-impregnated ZSM-5 was prepared as heterogeneous catalyst for carboxylation reaction of acetylene with carbon dioxide. Microporous and hierarchical ZSM-5 were synthesized using single template and double template, respectively. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) characterization results show that ZSM-5 material with high crytallinity was successfully synthesized. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images show ZSM-5 has hexagonal coffin-like morphology. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis proves that the ZSM-5 has combination of micro and meso-sized pores (hierarchical pores). The elemental analysis using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) gives nickel content of 1.9 % in microporous ZSM-5 and 2.1 % in hierarchical ZSM-5. HPLC analysis show new peak is observed at retention time of 3.6 minutes for carboxylation reaction of acetylene (CO₂: acetylene of 0.2:0.8) with optimum condition at 12 h and 80 °C when using microporous Ni/ZSM-5 or hierarchical counterpart as catalyst.