Comparison of catalytic pyrolysis of biomass with MCM-41 and CaO catalysts by using TGA–FTIR analysis

Pyrolysis of corncob with and without catalyst was investigated using thermogravimetry analyzer coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (TGA–FTIR). The effects of two completely different catalysts, acid catalyst (MCM-41) and base catalyst (CaO), on the formation characteristics and composition of pyrolysis vapor were studied. The results show that these two catalysts give different product distributions. For catalytic run with MCM-41, the molality of carbonyl compounds decreases 10.2%, while that of phenols, hydrocarbons and CH₄ increases 15.32%, 4.29% and 10.16% compared with non-catalytic run, respectively. The increase of phenols exhibits in a wide temperature range from about 295 °C to 790 °C in the catalytic run with MCM-41 catalyst. However, the use of CaO in pyrolysis of corncob leads to a huge change of product distribution. The molality of acids decreases 75.88%, while the molality of hydrocarbons and CH₄ increases 19.83% and 51.05% compared with non-catalytic run, respectively. CaO is very effective in deacidification and the conversion of acids promotes the formation of hydrocarbons and CH₄. Catalytic pyrolysis of corncob with CaO shows two main weight-loss stages. The first stage is from 235 °C to 310 °C with a weight loss of 31%. The second stage is from 650 °C to 800 °C with a weight loss of 21%.     

Aza-Michael addition reactions between nitroolefins and benzotriazole catalyzed by MCM-41 immobilized heteropoly acids in water

MCM-41 supported heteropoly acids(HPAs) catalysts were synthesized,characterized and their catalytic activity was evaluated in an aza-Michael addition reaction between nitroolefins and benzotriazole in water at room temperature.50 wt% PW/MCM-41 showed the highest activity(up to 96% yield).The catalyst was used in six consecutive experiments without obvious loss of activity, confirming the success of the anchoring process and the catalyst stability.     

Mesoporous materials incorporating a zinc(II) complex: Synthesis and direct luminescence quantum yield determination

New luminescent inorganic–organic hybrid materials incorporating the luminescent zinc(II) complex ZnL₂ (λ_em = 457 nm and Φ_em = 4.4% reference values for ZnL₂; HL = chelating ligand resulting from the reaction between salicylaldehyde and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane), covalently bonded to different types of mesoporous silica hosts (namely MCM-41, MCM-48 and SBA-15), were prepared via both the methods of grafting post-synthesis (GPS) and one-pot synthesis (OPS). The products obtained, which form the GPS [(GPS)(Zn/MCM-41), (GPS)(Zn/MCM-48), (GPS)(Zn/SBA-15)] and the OPS [(OPS)(Zn/MCM-41), (OPS)(Zn/MCM-48), (OPS)(Zn/SBA-15)] series, contain the ZnL₂ guest covalently bonded to the silica framework through silicon–oxygen bonds formed when the silane group is placed at the periphery of the Zn(II) coordination sphere. GPS and OPS materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, N₂ adsorption/desorption, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and UV/vis spectroscopy. For the new mesoporous materials the emission quantum yield (EQY) was measured by means of an integrating sphere combined with a spectrofluorimeter. The ZnL₂ loading (measured by the ZnL₂/SiO₂ ratio calculated from TGA data) for MCM-41 appears to be independent of the synthesis procedure, whereas, for both MCM-48 and SBA-15, the ZnL₂/SiO₂ ratio of the materials obtained via OPS is about four times higher than products obtained from GPS. The ZnL₂ loaded GPS and OPS series show λ_em maxima at about 485 and 455 nm, respectively. Moreover, with reference to EQY (GPS)(Zn/SBA-15) and (OPS)(Zn/SBA-15), although featuring ZnL₂/SiO₂ ratios of 0.13 and 0.45, respectively, they showed similar EQY values: 2% and 5%. On the contrary, (GPS)(Zn/MCM-41) and (OPS)(Zn/MCM-41) which give similar ZnL₂/SiO₂ ratios (0.09 and 0.14) exhibit very different EQY, i.e. 2% and 22%, respectively.     

Monte Carlo simulation for chemical reaction equilibrium of ammonia synthesis in MCM-41 pores and pillared clays

Reactive canonical Monte Carlo (RCMC) method was performed to simulate the chemical reaction equilibrium of ammonia synthesis in two important porous materials: MCM-41 pores and pillared clays. First, our results were compared with those in slit pores in the literature. Then, the effect of other factors such as pore size, pressure and temperature on the chemical equilibrium was investigated. A parameter of the absolute increase of ammonia mole fraction in the pores against that in the bulk phase, Δ_abs, is introduced to describe the effect of confinement on the chemical equilibrium. The yield of ammonia increases with the decrease of pore size, but this increase becomes pronounced at pore sizes of 1.5 nm for MCM-41 pores and 1.02 nm for pillared clays. The yield of ammonia also increases with pressure. In addition, the maximum ammonia mole fraction is attained at 100 bar and 573 K in both MCM-41 pores and pillared clays. When the feed mole ratio of N:H of the bulk phase declines from 4:13 to 4:15, the yield of ammonia in the pore phase also decreases. In addition, the effect of porosity in pillared clays on the chemical equilibrium was simulated.     

Transformation of South African coal fly ash into ZSM-5 zeolite and its application as an MTO catalyst

This study presents a way of using South African coal fly ash by extracting metals such as Al and Fe with concentrated sulphuric acid, and then using the solid residue as a feedstock for the synthesis of ZSM-5 zeolite. The percentage of aluminium and iron oxides decreased from 28.0 ± 0.2% and 5.0 ± 0.1% in coal fly ash to 24.6 ± 0.1% and 1.6 ± 0.01% in the acid treated coal fly ash respectively. The fly ash-based zeolite ZSM-5 sample synthesised from the solid residue after extraction of Al and Fe, contained 62% of ZSM-5 zeolite pure phase with a number of Brønsted acid site density of 0.61 mmol per g_zeolite.By properly treating the as-prepared coal fly ash-based ZSM-5 zeolite, an active and selective methanol-to-olefins acid catalyst could be designed, leading to full methanol conversion during 15 h on stream. The optimised catalyst exhibited a cumulative methanol conversion capacity of 71 g(MeOH_converted)/g(catalyst) and a light olefin productivity of 21 g(C₂₌–C₄₌)/g(catalyst).     

Speciation of CuO in MCM-41 during oxidation of naphthalene

By extended X-ray absorption fine structural (EXAFS) spectroscopy, copper oxide clusters with a square-plane structure are found in the channels of mesoporous molecular sieve MCM-41. Bond distances of Cu–O and Cu–Cu are 1.90 and 2.80 Å, respectively. Oxidation of naphthalene at 723 K for 4 h in MCM-41 leads to structural perturbation of the clusters (e.g., Cu–O: −0.02 Å and Cu–Cu: +0.02 Å) with little change in their coordination numbers.     

An efficient green catalyst comprising 12-tungstophosphoric acid and MCM-41: synthesis characterization and diesterification of succinic acid,a potential bio-platform molecule

An efficient green catalyst comprising 12-tungstophosphoric acid (TPA) and MCM-41 was synthesized. The catalytic activity was evaluated for liquid phase solvent free diesterification of succinic acid. The support and the synthesized catalyst were characterized by various physico-chemical techniques. Fourier transform infrared, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and ³¹P NMR spectra indicate that the Keggin structure of TPA was not destroyed after anchoring to MCM-41. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy show that TPA is uniformly dispersed inside the channels without disturbing the hexagonal array of MCM-41. The present contribution reports solvent free diesterification of succinic acid with alcohols under mild reaction conditions. The catalyst shows higher activity toward diester, especially for dioctyl succinate 99% yield was obtained with very high turnover number, 12.43×10⁴. Also the catalyst shows potential of being used as recyclable catalytic material after simple regeneration without loss of any catalytic activity.     

Investigation of Mg modified mesoporous silicas and their CO2 adsorption capacities

CO₂ adsorption properties on Mg modified silica mesoporous materials were investigated. By using the methods of co-condensation, dispersion and ion-exchange, Mg²⁺ was introduced into SBA-15 and MCM-41, and transformed into MgO in the calcination process. The basic MgO can provide active sites to enhance the acidic CO₂ adsorption capacity. To improve the amount and the dispersion state of the loading MgO, the optimized modification conditions were also investigated. The XRD and TEM characteristic results, as well as the CO₂ adsorption performance showed that the CO₂ adsorption capacity not only depended on the pore structures of MCM-41 and SBA-15, but also on the improvement of the dispersion state of MgO by modification. Among various Mg modified silica mesoporous materials, the CO₂ adsorption capacity increased from 0.42 mmol g⁻¹ of pure silica SBA-15 to 1.35 mmol g⁻¹ of Mg–Al–SBA-15-I1 by the ion-exchange method enhanced with Al³⁺ synergism. Moreover, it also increased from 0.67 mmol g⁻¹ of pure silica MCM-41 to 1.32 mmol g⁻¹ of Mg–EDA–MCM-41-D10 by the dispersion method enhanced with the incorporation of ethane diamine. The stability test by 10 CO₂ adsorption/desorption cycles showed Mg–urea–MCM-41-D10 possessed quite good recyclability.     

The synthesis of MCM-41 nanomaterial from Algerian Bentonite: The effect of the mineral phase contents of clay on the structure properties of MCM-41

This study focuses on the MCM-41 material (Mobil Composition of Matter). The MCM-41 nanomaterial presents higher physical properties such as pore sizes, surface areas and pore volumes. This material is usually synthesized by using laboratory reagents as silicate sources and aluminium source. These laboratory reagents are still expensive and toxic for large scale production. The main aim of this work is to resolve this problem and to replace these expensive laboratory reagents by more cost effective ones. The volclay and Algerian bentonite low-cost mass clay materials are used as silicate and acuminate sources separately by adopting an alkaline fusion process to extract both silicon and aluminium (1 kg of silicium and aluminium from volclay and Algerian bentonite cost around 0.03 and 0.01 € whereas the same amount of silicon from ludox and aluminium from sodium aluminates cost around 350 €). The synthesis of MCM-41 from bentonite was carried out by the hydrothermal method using the supernatants of bentonite (in the form of sodium silicate and sodium aluminate). On the basis of the data obtained from powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and N₂ adsorption and desorption, the results revealed that the properties of MCM-41 synthesized from Algerian bentonite and volclay separately depend on both elemental composition and mineral phase contents of the used bentonite. Pure and highly ordered hexagonal mesoporous MCM-41 with uniform pore sizes and a high specific surface area have been successfully synthesized without any phases which exist in natural bentonite. The Algerian bentonite was chosen because of its low cost compared to volclay, another commercial clay source.     

Encapsulation of a chiral MnIII(salen) complex in ordered mesoporous silicas: an approach towards heterogenizing asymmetric epoxidation catalysts for non-functionalized alkenes

Two immobilized chiral Mn^III(salen) complexes covalently anchored on modified MCM-41 (50 Å) and SBA-15 (75 Å) were prepared using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane as a reactive surface modifier to afford comparable or even higher enantioselectivity than homogeneous catalysts for the enantioselective epoxidation of a series of smaller to bulkier alkenes. The catalyst immobilized in silica with larger pore diameters was found to be more active. Compared to homogeneous catalysts, the heterogenized catalysts are more stable and can be recycled four times with retention of enantioselectivity.     

Ethylbenzene to chemicals: Catalytic conversion of ethylbenzene into styrene over metal-containing MCM-41

Isomorphously substituted (MeDM) and impregnated metal-containing MCM-41 (MeO_x/IM) catalysts, in which Me = Co, Cu, Cr, Fe or Ni, have been prepared. Structural and textural characterizations of the catalysts were performed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), chemical analysis, Raman spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), N₂ adsorption isotherms and temperature programmed reduction (TPR). Cu²⁺, Co²⁺, and Cr⁴⁺/Cr³⁺ species were found over the catalysts as cations incorporated in the MCM-41 structure (MeDM) or highly dispersed oxides on the surface (MeO_x/IM). The MeDM catalysts exhibited a good performance in the dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene with CO₂. However, MeO_x/IM catalysts had a low performance in styrene production (activity less than 15 × 10^?3 mmol h^?1 and selectivity for styrene less than 80%) due to the high reducibility of the metals species. However, Ni²⁺ or Fe³⁺ coordinated with the MCM-41 framework, as well as NiO_x and Fe₂O₃ extra-framework species, is continuously oxidized by the CO₂ to maintain the active sites for dehydrogenating ethylbenzene. Deactivation studies on the FeDM sample showed that Fe³⁺ species produced active sp² carbon compounds, which are removed by CO₂; the referred sample is catalytically selective for styrene and stable over 24 h of reaction. In contrast, highly active Ni²⁺ and Ni⁰ species produced a large amount of polyaromatic carbonaceous deposits from styrene, as identified by TPO, TG and Raman spectroscopy. An acid–base mechanism is proposed to operate to adsorb ethylbenzene and abstract the β-hydrogen. CO₂ plays a role in furnishing the lattice oxygen to maintain the Fe³⁺ active sites in the dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to form styrene.     

Investigation of steam reforming of acetic acid to hydrogen over Ni–Co metal catalyst

Catalytic generation of hydrogen by steam reforming of acetic acid over a series of Ni–Co catalysts have been studied. The catalyst with the molar ratio of 0.25:1 between Ni and Co was superior to other catalysts. The effects of reaction temperature, liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) and molar ratios of steam-to-carbon (S/C) were studied in detail over this catalyst. At T = 673 K, LHSV = 5.1 h⁻¹, S/C = 7.5:1, the catalyst exhibited the best performances. Acetic acid was converted completely to hydrogen, while H₂ selectivity reached up to 96.3% and CO₂ selectivity up to 98.1% was obtained, respectively. Ni–Co catalyst showed rather stable performances for the 70 h time-on-stream without any deactivation.     

Effect of silver modification on structure and catalytic performance of Ni-Mg/diatomite catalysts for edible oil hydrogenation

Silver modified Mg-Ni/diatomite materials with ratios of SiO₂/Ni = 1.07 and Mg/Ni = 0.1, differing in Ag content (Ag/Ni = 0.025 and 0.1) were prepared by the precipitation–deposition method. The effects of silver presence and content on the structure, morphology, texture and H₂-adsorption capacity of the obtained precursors were studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Hg-porosimetry and H₂-chemisorption techniques. The catalytic performance of the corresponding catalysts in the soybean oil hydrogenation was investigated. The increase of the silver loading resulted in the development of macroporosity and increase in the total sample porosity. The decrease of both H₂-adsorption capacity and hydrogenation activity are related to the metallic silver covering and blocking effects on the Ni²⁺ species, thus hampering the access of hydrogen. The decrease of hydrogenation activity and favorable limiting of cis–trans isomerization on the silver modified catalyst are explained by Horiuti–Polanyi mechanism based on the assumption that hydrogenation and isomerization proceed at the same active metallic nickel sites via half-hydrogenated intermediates.It was shown that the adjustment of the catalyst composition by changing the content of silver modifier offers the possibility to control the total amount of solid fat content, stearic acid and detrimental trans fatty acids in the hydrogenated derivatives. The catalyst with higher silver content is proposed as a promising candidate for selective edible oil hydrogenation catalyst.     

Operando ATR-FTIR analysis of liquid-phase catalytic reactions: can heterogeneous catalysts be observed?

The applicability of a React-IR™ system, containing a diamond attenuated total reflection (ATR) crystal, in heterogeneous liquid-phase catalytic reactions was evaluated by analysis of the catalytic esterification of 1-octanol and hexanoic acid over a Nafion/silica catalyst in an open reflux configuration at atmospheric pressure. The reaction was performed in either cumene (at 427 K) or n-decane (at 447 K). The concentration profiles of the esterification reaction, as determined by this real-time in situ IR spectroscopic technique, are in qualitative and quantitative agreement with those determined by conventional off-line GC analysis.Interestingly, besides the bands assigned to the ester, alcohol, and acid, an additional strong and broad absorption band was observed at around 1100 cm⁻¹ in the spectra during the esterification reaction in cumene (at 427 K). It was assessed by variation of the reaction mixture that this band is a result of the reaction of silica with octanol, yielding Si–O–R functionalities. The relevance of this reaction for the kinetics of the studied catalytic esterification, is discussed. More importantly, the contribution of solid particles and leached species to the 1100 cm⁻¹ band is evaluated. Strong indications exist that solid catalyst particles are contributing to the spectra, implying that on-line analysis of intermediate species adsorbed on heterogeneous catalysts is in specific cases possible using the React-IR™ technique.     

Study on a novel manufacturing process of membrane electrode assemblies for solid polymer electrolyte water electrolysis

A novel manufacturing process for catalyst coated membrane (CCM) was utilized to fabricate the membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) for solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) water electrolysis. The properties and performance of the modified CCM were analyzed and evaluated by SEM, electrochemistry impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and I–V curves. The characterizations reveal that the sprayed Nafion layers are very effective for increasing the reaction interface between SPE and the electrode catalyst layer. The test experiments show that the SPE water electrolyzer with new MEA structure can lower about 0.1 V of water electrolysis voltage at atmosphere pressure and 2 A cm⁻².     

Hydrogen production by catalytic steam reforming of acetic acid,a model compound of biomass pyrolysis liquids

An environmentally friendly and cost-competitive way of producing hydrogen is the catalytic steam reforming of biomass pyrolysis liquids, known as bio-oil, which can be separated into two fractions: ligninic and aqueous. Acetic acid has been identified as one of the major organic acids present in the latter, and catalytic steam reforming has been studied for this model compound. Three different Ni coprecipitated catalysts have been prepared with varying nickel content (23, 28 and 33% expressed as a Ni/(Ni + Al) relative at.% of nickel). Several parameters have been analysed using a microscale fixed-bed facility: the effect of the catalyst reduction time, the reaction temperature, the catalyst weight/acetic acid flow rate (W/m_HAc) ratio, and the effect of the nickel content. The catalyst with 33% Ni content at 650 °C showed no significant enhancement of the hydrogen yield after 2 h of reduction compared to 1 h under the same experimental conditions. Its performance was poorer when reduced for just 0.5 h. For W/m_HAc ratios greater than 2.29 g catalyst min/g acetic acid (650 °C, 33% Ni content) no improvement was observed, whereas for values lower than 2.18 g catalyst min/g acetic acid a decrease in product gas yields occurred rapidly. The temperatures studied were 550, 650 and 750 °C. No decrease in product gas yields was observed at 750 °C under the established experimental conditions. Below this temperature, the aforementioned decrease became more important with decreasing temperatures. The catalyst with 28% Ni content performed better than the other two.     

An efficient and facile procedure for synthesis of octyl polyglucoside

Nonionic surfactant alkyl polyglucoside (APG) was prepared by direct glycosidation of alkyl alcohol with glucose in the presence of sulfate acid-silica gel (H_2SO_4/SiO_2) as solid acidic catalyst.The quantity of catalyst was only of 1 wt%,based on the glucose,and the conversion of glucose was close to 100% at 110℃in 1.5h.The product was characterized by FT-IR,mass and ~1H NMR spectra.The degree of polymerization (DP) of the glucose in the product was 1.37,and critical micelle concentration (CMC) of product was only 0.0104 wt%.     

Increasing the efficiency of silicon and aluminum extraction from Volclay by a water iteration treatment for the synthesis of MCM-41 nanomaterials

This work aims to reduce the prices of a wide range of nanomaterials which are unreachable in the industry by using natural sources as silicon and aluminum precursors. In a previous work, silicon and aluminum have been extracted from Volclay after applying the alkaline fusion process at 550 °C, and a water treatment of this fused clay by adopting a weight ratio (1:4, fusion mass:H₂O) to synthesize Al-MCM-41 nanomaterials. In this study, the weight ratio of fusion mass:H₂O was increased to 1:8 to synthesize a highly structurally ordered MCM-41 under the same reaction conditions. The Al-MCM-41 nanomaterials are investigated by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP–OES), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), N₂ adsorption–desorption measurements and scanning electron microscopy (ESEM). As a result, the increase in the weight ratio fusion mass:H₂O generates more silica and aluminum, which allows the formation of well-ordered MCM-41 nanomaterials with high pore volume (0.70 cm³/g), high surface area (1044 m²/g), and uniform mesoporous diameter (3.67 nm); as a consequence, the increase in the weight ratio fusion mass:H₂O leads to an increase in the mass of Al-MCM-41 (9.3 g for 1:8 compared to 5 g for 1:4), whereas the yield of production of mesoporous materials increases to 86%.     

Modifying MCM-41 as an efficient nitrosamine trap in aqueous solution

The attempt of preparing efficient adsorbent to capture nitrosamines in aqueous solution is reported in this paper, in order to develop new mesoporous functional materials for environment protection. Adsorption of nitrosamines in an aqueous solution containing the tobacco-extract, by zeolite and mesoporous silica was investigated in detail. The influence of structural parameters such as pore size, Si/Al ratio and cation on the adsorption of zeolite was examined. Emphatically, two modification methods, one-pot synthesis and solid state grinding were employed to incorporate aluminum in mesoporous silica MCM-41 since MCM-41 possesses the suitable pore size for the trap of tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) in solution. The resulting composites were characterized by XRD, N₂ adsorption at 77 K, FTIR and NH₃-TPD to inspect their property and function. The impact of modifier amount and preparative method on the actual adsorption of the Al-containing composite was investigated.     

Zirconyl schiff base complex-functionalized MCM-41 catalyzes dehydration of fructose into 5-hydroxymethylfurfural in organic solvents

A heterogeneous catalyst was prepared by immobilizing Zirconyl Schiff base complex on the modified MCM-41 and used in the conversion of fructose to HMF. A higher HMF yield was obtained when fructose as raw material under optimal reaction conditions.