A Study on IIIA Group Metals (B or Ga or Tl) Doped Mo2C-HZSM-5 Catalysts for Methane Dehydroaromatization

Nagaraju Pasupulety (Chemical and Materials Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80204, Jeddah, 21589)
Majed A. Alamoudi (Chemical and Materials Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80204, Jeddah, 21589)
Abdulrahim A. Al-Zahrani (Chemical and Materials Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80204, Jeddah, 21589)

Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis
2025: BCREC Volume 20 Issue 4 Year 2025 (December 2025)

Methane dehydroaromatization (MDA) is a promising route for direct conversion of methane into value-added aromatics such as benzene, toluene and naphthalene. This study investigates the effect of IIIA group metals like boron (B), gallium (Ga), and thallium (Tl) doped into Mo₂C/HZSM-5 catalysts tested for MDA at 700 oC and 1800 mL.gcat-1.h-1. The influence of promoters on catalyst acidity and coke formation was investigated through various analytical techniques including NH₃-TPD and TPO. Among the samples, Ga-Mo₂C/HZSM-5 demonstrated greater benzene selectivity and consistent stability due to abundant Mo2C and low temperature coke formations. Whereas, B- or Tl-Mo₂C/HZSM-5 suffered from high temperature coke formations related to their greater acidity and greater extent of surface molybdenum oxidized species. Copyright © 2025 by Authors, Published by BCREC Publishing Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).