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Abstract

The intrinsic Brønsted acid strength in solid acids relates to the energy required to separate a proton from a conjugate base, for example a negatively charged zeolite framework. The reliable characterization of zeolites’ intrinsic acidity is fundamental to the understanding of acid catalysis and setting in relation solid Brønsted acids with their activity and selectivity. Here, we report an infrared spectroscopic study with partial isotopic deuterium exchange of a series of 15 different acidic aluminosilicate materials, including ZSM-5 zeolites with very few defects. Varying Temperature Infrared spectroscopy (VTIR) permitted estimating activation energies for proton diffusion. Two different proton transfer mechanisms have been distinguished for two different temperature ranges. Si-rich zeolites appeared to be promising proton-transfer materials (E_act. < 40 kJ mol^–1) at temperatures above 150 °C (423 K). Further, a linear bathochromic shift of the Si–(OD)–Al stretching vibration as a function of temperature was observed. It can be assumed that this red-shift is related to the intrinsic O–(H/D) bond strength. This observation allowed the extrapolation and estimation of precise v(O–D)@0 K values, which could be attributed to distinct crystallographic locations through Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. The developed method was used to reliably determine the likelihood of the position of a proton in ZSM-5 zeolites under catalytically relevant conditions (T > 423 K), which has so far never been achieved by any other technique.