Structural incorporation of carbon and nitrogen into B-SSZ-13: a spectroscopic and computational studies L. Regli a *, C. Lamberti a , C. Busco b , A. Zecchina a , C. Prestipino c , K. P. Lillerud d , S. I. Zones e and S. Bordiga a a Dep. of Chemistry IFM and NIS Centre of Excellence, Via Giuria 7, I-10125 Torino, Italy b DiSCAFF and NIS Centre of Excellence, Via Bovio 6, 28100 NoVara, Italy c ESRF, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, BP220, F-38043, Grenoble CEDEX, France d Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, P. O. Box 1033, N-0315, Oslo, Norway e ChevronTexaco Energy Research and Technology Company, 100 Chevron Way, Richmond, CA 94802, USA. E-mail: silvia.bordiga@unito.it ABSTRACT As prepared B-SSZ-13 exhibits [B(OSi) 4 ] units in T d -like geometry, upon template burning, the break of a B-O-Si bond results in [B(OSi) 3 ] units in D 3h -like geometry, testified by the appearance of the IR fingerprint at 1390 cm -1 and by the evolution of the NEXAFS spectrum. Interaction with CH 3 OH at room temperature results in a rich reactivity with both [B(OSi) 3 ] units and adjacent SiOH species. A gentle thermal treatment at 373 K in NH 3 atmosphere results in the formation of -NH 2 species bonded directly to boron or to silicon, stable at ambient atmosphere. This finding is of relevance because it represents the insertion of basic species inside a zeolitic framework, and thus the achievement of a microporous molecular sieve acting as a Brønsted base. 1. INTRODUCTION Zeolites are well known as acid catalysts. B-substituted zeolites give rise to materials with very low Brønsted acidity. The idea to modulate the Brønsted acidity by the isomorphous substitution of boron inside the zeolite framework has been previously exploited with success in case of vapor-phase Beckman rearrangement of cyclohexanone oxime to -caprolactam performed on B-ZSM-5 [1, 2]. It is consequently expected that B-substituted chabazite should be less acidic than the corresponding H-SAPO-34, H-SSZ-13 materials, and thus possibly less prone to form coke. In order to try to improve catalyst performances in term of lifetime (i.e. to minimize the coke formation) and to see the effect of chemical compositions on the selectivity of C2-C4 products, a comparison between H-SAPO-34, H-SSZ-13 and B-SSZ-13 has been performed [3]. This study has evidenced that H-SSZ-13 gives a much higher alkane products than H-SAPO-34, while B-SSZ-13 is completely inactive. Authors explains the total inactivity of B-SSZ-13 towards methanol to hydrocarbons process in term of its lower 585 From Zeolites to Porous MOF Materials – the 40 th Anniversary of International Zeolite Conference R. Xu, Z. Gao, J. Chen and W. Yan (Editors) © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.