Previously,
3D printing of porous materials and metal oxides was
limited to low loading metal loadings, as increasing the nitrate salt
concentrations, which are used to generate the oxide component, gave
rise to poor rheological properties beyond 10 wt %. In this study,
we addressed this problem by directly printing insoluble oxides alongside
H-ZSM-5 zeolite, which allowed for increased oxide loadings. Various
metal oxides such as V2O5, ZrO2,
Cr2O3, and Ga2O3 were
doped onto H-ZSM-5 through the additive manufacturing method. Characterization
and correlation between the X-ray diffraction, NH3-temperature-programmed
desorption, O2-temperature programmed oxidation, temperature-programmed
reduction, scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive spectroscopy,
and in situ CO2 DRIFTS experiments revealed
that directly 3D printing metal oxides/H-ZSM-5 inks leads to significant
modification in the surface properties and oxide bulk dispersion,
thereby enhancing the composites’ reducibility and giving rise
to widely differing product distributions in n-hexane
cracking reaction. The obtained metal oxide/zeolite structured materials
were used as bifunctional structured catalysts for the selective formation
of light olefins from hexane at 550–600 °C and GHSV =
9000 mL/gcatalst·h in a packed-bed reactor. Among
the various compositions of metal oxides/H-ZSM-5 examined (i.e., 15
wt % Ga2O3, 15 wt % ZrO2, 15 wt %
V2O5, 15 wt % Cr2O3, or
5 wt % Cr/10 wt % ZrO2/10 wt % V2O5/10 wt % Ga2O3 balanced with H-ZSM-5), the
15 wt % Cr/ZSM-5 monolith displayed the best n-hexane
cracking performance, as it achieved 80–85% conversion of hexane
with a 40% selectivity toward propylene, 30% selectivity toward ethylene,
and 10% selectivity toward butene at 550 °C. The sample also
showed zero benzene/toluene/xylene selectivity and no deactivation
after 6 h. This study represents a proof-of-concept for tailoring
customizable heterogeneous structured catalysts by directly 3D printing
high loading of metal oxides/porous zeolite and is a breakthrough
in material science.