Unprecedented contributions of thinner ferrierite zeolite morphology for superior gas-phase dimethyl ether carbonylation activity

String-like thinner morphology of FER zeolite (SFER) having considerable amount of strong acidic sites was successively synthesized by using two different organic structure directing agents (OSDA) such as CTAB and piperidine, which showed larger number of active strong Bronsted acid sites with higher catalytic activity and stability for a gas-phase carbonylation of dimethyl ether (DME) to methyl acetate (MA). The effects of synthesis procedures and surface properties were verified by using surface acidic sites measurements and molecular dynamics (MD) analysis, where an appropriate molar ratio of CTAB to piperidine (similar to 0.5) showed the most stable DME adsorption natures with catalytic stability. The ultrathin-layers with string-like FER morphology were found to be excellent to enhance a gas-phase DME carbonylation activity with an increased stability of the FER structures, which was mainly attributed to the enhanced mass transfer rate in the string-like thinner FER micro and mesopore channels with larger strong Bronsted acid sites resulted in the suppressed depositions of coke precursors.