The vapour and liquid phase ethylation of ethylbenzene was performed over AIPO(4)-5 and its substituted counter parts. The results obtained for vapour phase reactions have shown a higher catalytic activity at 350 and 400 degrees C. The catalysts, however, exhibited a faster deactivation rate. The results obtained for liquid phase reaction have shown a higher selectivity for para-diethylbenzene (84.4%) than the vapour phase reaction (41.5%). MnAPO-5 was found to be active up to 240 h for the liquid phase reaction. para-Diethylbenzene, meta-diethylbenzene and polyalkylbenzene were the major products obtained for ethylation of ethylbenzene. When ethylbenzene passed over MnAPO-5 yielded products, such as benzaldehyde, acetophenone, styrene and 2,3-diphenylbutane. This showed a preference for oxidation rather than disproportionation followed by alkylation. Notwithstanding the better acid characteristics of ZSM-5, MnAPO-5 could be a better choice for this class of reaction essentially due to its higher para selectivity. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.