Renewed interest in zeolite catalyst performance in the presence of variable amounts of water has prompted solid-state NMR experiments designed to identify the nature of water interaction with and within conventional and chemically modified H-ZSM-5 zeolites. Recent work has demonstrated that water can positively influence reaction rates in zeolite-catalyzed chemistries, and new interest in catalytic processing of molecules derived from biomass requires understanding the fate of water in and on zeolite catalysts, as a function of water loading. The contribution of acid site density to water adsorption within zeolites is assessed by comparing bulk uptake and molecular experiments at varying Si:Al ratios, and interpreting those results in the context of solid-state NMR results that reveal strongly adsorbed water molecules and water clusters. In situ magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR experiments for water loadings ranging from ca. 4 to 500 water molecules per zeolite unit cell indicate the following: (1) the dominant interaction is from water adsorbed from the vapor phase at an interior acid site, and unique signals for both the water and acid site are resolved at low loadings; (2) the exchanged-averaged water/acid site chemical shift at higher loadings can be used to measure acid site titration by water; and (3) silane-treated hydrophobically modified H-ZSM-5 does not allow liquid-phase water to access interior acid sites. The in situ 1H MAS NMR method indicates that as-synthesized acidic zeolites can be rendered hydrophobic in the presence of liquid-phase water, with only a minimal reduction in the total number of acid sites.

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Systematic variation of the size and number of inverse-tapered blocks in styrene–butadiene copolymers results in a wide range of accessible glass-transition temperatures (T g), including T g’s approaching that predicted by the Fox equation. Composition-weighted average T g’s are expected for miscible blends or random copolymers, but such behavior has not previously been reported for block copolymers made from immiscible styrene and butadiene segments. In this work, 50:50 wt % multiblock copolymers with M n = 120 000 kg/mol were synthesized using an inverse-tapered block design for all blocks except the end blocks. The total composition and molecular weight were held constant, but the type and number of blocks were systematically varied in order to compare contributions from the inverse-tapered chain interfaces to the overall glass transition behavior. Discrete copolymers of similar block number and length were investigated as controls to help separate contributions from the inverse-tapered design and the molecular weight of individual blocks. Some copolymers were intentionally designed such that individual block molecular weights were between the entanglement molecular weight (M e) of polystyrene (PS) and polybutadiene (PB). A range of intermediate glass transitions was observed, but the inverse-tapered copolymers that satisfied this latter condition were the only copolymers that exhibited a T g near a composition-weighted average. Solid state NMR reveals dynamic heterogeneity among monomeric components through chain-level identification of relatively large amounts of rigid PB segments and mobile PS chain segments versus that observed in discrete block analogues where essentially all PB segments are mobile and all PS segments are rigid. NMR revealed subtle differences in the temperature-dependent segmental chain dynamics of different inverse-tapered blocks, which were not obvious from the calorimetric studies but which presumably contribute to the longer length scale T g behavior.