Effect of Fe Additives on the Catalytic Performance of Ion-Exchanged CsX Zeolites for Side-Chain Alkylation of Toluene with Methanol

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This article was written on the actual topic and suitable for the subject of this magazine.

The preparation of styrene and ethylbenzene by alkylation of toluene with methanol can be an important industrial process.

I do not have big comments on the article. There are several questions and suggestions for improving the article:

What is the performance of the catalyst? This must be indicated and compared with known catalysts. A low toluene conversion (2-8%) has been achieved, can it be significantly increased? For industrial use, this is very important. Add data on the duration of the test. How stable are the catalysts? and what are the main reasons for its decontamination? What is the assessment of the life cycle of a catalyst?

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This paper is an interesting addition to the knowledge of catalysis mechanisms and catalyst for the alkylation of toluene with methanol to ethylbenzene and styrene. Authors focus their work on the activity towards the main products and some subproducts of a Cs-X zeolite doped with Fe via Fe(NO3)2 and FeCl2, finding notable differences depending on the Fe salt. The paper is very well written, with only some minor grammar and typesetting errors (see the attached pdf file with corrections).

Apart from that minor detail, the intro section lacks some ideas about styrene market (production), typical process (ethylene + benzene) and comparison to this alternative process, so, given that the section is short, a paragraph can be added to ilustrate the non-expert reader about styrene and process towards it and the importance of ethylbenzene in styrene production.

Finally, I see that the authors focus on activity and selectivity of their catalysts, but not on stability (maybe the subject of another work in the future). However, there is little comparison to the results of other authors in this process in particular, even with other catalyst. I mean a cuantitative comparison in terms of activity and stability. For the initial part of results and discussion, it would be an asset, surely, to include such comparison.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf