Abstract: Fe-Zr oxides with different Zr/Fe molar ratios were prepared by a co-precipitation method and used as catalysts for the vapor phase ortho-selective alkylation of phenol with methanol. Results showed that the Fe-Zr oxide catalysts had relatively high activity and ortho-selectivity. Among them, the sample with nZr/nFe=0.5/100 exhibited the highest activity (99.2% phenol conversion) with a selectivity of 22.6% to o-cresol and 77.0% to 2,6-xylenol. An increase in reaction temperature could further improve selectivity for 2,6-xylenol. The presence of relatively strong acid-base sites may be responsible for the high phenol conversion and the high 2,6-xylenol selectivity.

Key words: Phenol, Methanol, ortho-Selective alkylation, o-Cresol, 2,6-Xylenol