Facile synthesis for ordered mesoporous γ-aluminas with high thermal stability

Quan Yuan, An Xiang Yin, Chen Luo, Ling Dong Sun, Ya Wen Zhang, Wen Tao Duan, Hai Chao Liu*, Chun Hua Yan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

650 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The facile synthesis of highly ordered mesoporous aluminas with high thermal stability and tunable pore sizes is systematically investigated. The general synthesis strategy is based on a sol-gel process associated with nonionic block copolymer as templates in ethanol solvent. Small-angle XRD, TEM, and nitrogen adsorption and desorption results show that these mesoporous aluminas possess a highly ordered 2D hexagonal mesostructure, which is resistant to high temperature up to 1000°C. Ordered mesoporous structures with tunable pore sizes are obtained with various precursors, different acids as pH adjustors, and different block copolymers as templates. These mesoporous aluminas have large surface areas (ca. 400 m2/g), pore volumes (ca. 0.70 cm3/g), and narrow pore-size distributions. The influence of the complexation ability of anions and hydro-carboxylic acid, acid volatility, and other important synthesis conditions are discussed in detail. Utilizing this simple strategy, we also obtained partly ordered mesoporous alumina with hydrous aluminum nitrate as the precursor. FTIR pyridine adsorption measurements indicate that a large amount of Lewis acid sites exist in these mesoporous aluminas. These materials are expected to be good candidates in catalysis due to the uniform pore structures, large surface areas, tunable pore sizes, and large amounts of surface Lewis acid sites. Loaded with ruthenium, the representative mesoporous alumina exhibits reactant size selectivity in hydrogenation of acetone, D-glucose, and D-(+)-cellobiose as a test reaction, indicating the potential applications in shape-selective catalysis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3465-3472
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume130
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Mar 2008
Externally publishedYes

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