Wiley, Angewandte Chemie, 30(127), p. 8907-8910, 2015
Wiley, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 30(54), p. 8783-8786
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Experimental evidence for the presence of tert-butyl cations, which are important intermediates in acid-catalyzed heterogeneous reactions, on solid acids has still not been provided to date. By combining density functional theory (DFT) calculations with 1H/13C magic-angle-spinning NMR spectroscopy, the tert-butyl cation was successfully identified on zeolite H-ZSM-5 upon conversion of isobutene by capturing this intermediate with ammonia. Captured and characterized: The intermediacy of tert-butyl cations in the acid-catalyzed conversion of isobutene on zeolite H-ZSM-5 was confirmed by their capture with ammonia.