The present invention relates to a catalyst for
cumene hydroperoxide decomposition, wherein said catalyst has good
efficacy, provides good
decomposition of
cumene hydroperoxide and good selectivity to main products, provides high yield percentage of alpha methyl
styrene, and reduces the formation of unwanted byproducts. Said catalyst comprises
zeolite beta, wherein said catalyst has the following characteristics: a) the
mole ratio of silica to
alumina is from 30 to 100; and b) the
peak area ratio obtained from the analysis using 27Al
magic angle spinning-
nuclear magnetic resonance (27Al MAS-NMR) technique according to the following relation: (A+C+D) / B is from 0.1 to 0.3; wherein A, B, C, and D are the
peak area at the peak position from 44 but less than 54 ppm, the
peak area at the peak position from 54 to 58 ppm, the peak area at the peak position greater than 58 to 64 ppm, and the peak area at the peak position from -10 to 5 ppm, respectively, by the peak
deconvolution analysis with Lorentz / Gauss function under the condition that the
minimum distance between peaks for independent integration (AZFW) is equal to 0.5 ppm. Moreover, this invention relates to a preparation process of the catalyst comprising the step of contacting
zeolite beta with polycarboxylic acid solution and
calcination at the temperature in the range from 400 to 700 °C, wherein said polycarboxylic acid has the pKa of the first dissociation from 1.5 to 3.5 and has the molecular structure with at least one side having size larger than 6 Å. This invention also relates to a process for
cumene hydroperoxide decomposition using said catalyst or catalyst prepared from said preparation process of the catalyst.