On the nature of water bound to a solid acid catalyst

The nature of the species formed when water interacts with Brønsted acid sites in a microporous solid acid catalyst, HSAPO-34, was studied by powder neutron diffraction and infrared spectroscopy. Previous infrared and computational studies had failed to unambiguously establish whether water is protonated to form hydronium (H₃O⁺) ions or is merely hydrogen-bonded to acid sites inside the zeolite. Our experiments clearly showed that both species are present: An H₃O⁺ ion is found in the eight-ring channel of the zeolite and a second water molecule is hydrogen-bonded to an acid site on the six-ring.