The Roles of Entropy and Enthalpy in Stabilizing Ion-Pairs at Transition States in Zeolite Acid Catalysis

Acidic zeolites are indispensable catalysts in the petrochemical industry because they select reactants and their chemical pathways based on size and shape. Voids of molecular dimensions confine reactive intermediates and transition states that mediate chemical reactions, stabilizing them by van der Waals interactions. This behavior is reminiscent of the solvation effects prevalent within enzyme pockets and has analogous consequences for catalytic specificity. Voids provide the "right fit" for certain transition states, reflected in their lower free energies, thus extending the catalytic diversity of zeolites well beyond simple size discrimination. This catalytic diversity is even more remarkable because acid strength is essentially unaffected by confinement among known crystalline aluminosilicates. In this Account, we discuss factors that determine the "right fit" for a specific chemical reaction, exploring predictive criteria that extend the prevailing discourse based on size and shape. We link the structures of reactants, transition states, and confining voids to chemical reactivity and selectivity. Confinement mediates enthalpy-entropy compromises that determine the Gibbs free energies of transition states and relevant reactants; these activation free energies determine turnover rates via transition state theory. At low temperatures (400-500 K), dimethyl ether carbonylation occurs with high specificity within small eight-membered ring (8-MR) voids in FER and MOR zeolite structures, but at undetectable rates within larger voids (MFI, BEA, FAU, and SiO(2)-Al(2)O(3)). More effective van der Waals stabilization within 8-MR voids leads to lower ion-pair enthalpies but also lower entropies; taken together, carbonylation activation free energies are lower within 8-MR voids. The "right fit" is a "tight fit" at low temperatures, a consequence of how temperature appears in the defining equation for Gibbs free energy. In contrast, entropy effects dominate in high-temperature alkane activation (700-800 K), for which the "right fit" becomes a "loose fit". Alkane activation turnovers are still faster on 8-MR MOR protons because these transition states are confined only partially within shallow 8-MR pockets; they retain higher entropies than ion-pairs fully confined within 12-MR channels at the expense of enthalpic stability. Selectivities for n-alkane dehydrogenation (relative to cracking) and isoalkane cracking (relative to dehydrogenation) are higher on 8-MR than 12-MR sites because partial confinement preferentially stabilizes looser ion-pair structures; these structures occur later along reaction coordinates and are higher in energy, consistent with Marcus theory for charge-transfer reactions. Enthalpy differences between cracking and dehydrogenation ion-pairs for a given reactant are independent of zeolite structure (FAU, FER, MFI, or MOR) and predominantly reflect the different gas-phase proton affinities of alkane C-C and C-H bonds, as expected from Born-Haber thermochemical cycles. These thermochemical relations, together with statistical mechanics-based treatments, predict that rotational entropy differences between intact reactants and ion-pair transition states cause intrinsic cracking rates to increase with n-alkane size. Through these illustrative examples, we highlight the effects of reactant and catalyst structures on ion-pair transition state enthalpies and entropies. Our discussion underscores the role of temperature in mediating enthalpic and entropic contributions to free energies and, in turn, to rates and selectivities in zeolite acid catalysis.