Profiling the Short-lives Cationic Species Generated within Catalytic Dehydration of Short Chain Alcohols

Short chain alcohols are important products of biomass conversion and can be further converted into platform chemicals through heterogeneous catalysis of dehydration. Herein, we developed a novel strategy by integrating a micro catalytic reactor onto the ion inlet of a high resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry for high-speed, high-sensitive and high-throughput detection of the short-lives cationic species generated in the heterogeneous catalysis of short chain alcohols dehydration on γ-Al₂O₃ or acidic zeolites HZSM-5. Finally, hundreds of cationic species could be feasibly observed within the HZSM-5 catalytic short chain alcohols dehydration.<b></b>