The effects of local structural relaxation on aluminum siting within H-ZSM-5

Semiempirical molecular orbital calculations have been performed to study aluminum siting in H-ZSM-5 zeolites. Local structural rearrangements upon substituting aluminum (with a charge compensating proton) for silicon are found to be important. The T12 site is found to be the most preferred site for aluminum substitution. However, the calculated energetics for substitution show that several tetrahedral sites are energetically comparable with regard to aluminum siting. Results pertaining to the electronic properties of the acidic site upon aluminum substitution at each of the twelve distinct tetrahedral sites are presented. The acidic center is found to be a rather soft species, with the HOMO-LUMO energy gap being roughly 8 eV.