An investigation of gold adsorption from a binary mixture with selective mesoporous silica adsorbents

Gold-selective adsorbents were prepared from mesoporous MCM-41 silica by grafting organic amine groups (i.e., RNH2, R2NH, and R3N; R=propyl). NH2-MCM-41, NRH-MCM-41, and NR2-MCM-41 displayed strong affinity for gold and at 1 mmol/g loading adsorbed 0.40, 0.33, and 0.20 mmol/g of gold. Copper and nickel were not adsorbed on these adsorbents. Grafting surface chemical moieties introduces heterogeneity on an otherwise uniform MCM-41 pore surface and metal adsorption is best described by the Freundlich adsorption model. A series of binary adsorption equilibrium studies with NH2-MCM-41 containing 2.2 mmol RNH2/g shows that NH2-MCM-41 adsorbs only gold from solutions containing copper and nickel with an adsorption capacity of 0.6 mol of Au/mol of RNH2 (1.1 mmol of Au/g of NH2-MCM-41). Copper and nickel were not adsorbed by NH2-MCM-41 regardless of the solution concentration, composition, and pH (i.e., 2 to 4) in the presence of gold. The LeVan and Vermeulen adsorption model based on a single component Freundlich isotherm and corrected for the anion effect accurately predicted the binary adsorptions. The adsorbed gold was completely recovered by a simple acid wash and the recovered gold solution is 99% pure. The regenerated NH2-MCM-41 remained 100% selective for gold removal and exhibited the same adsorption capacity even after several uses.     

Morphology of nanostructured platinum in mesoporous materials-effect of solvent and intrachannel surface

An intrachannel surface of host silica was functionalized through the reaction of surface silanol groups with silanes to generate a monolayer of positively charged groups, and together with the strongly adsorbed and negatively charged PtCl6(2-), resulting in nanostructured platinum-mesoporous silica composites. The highly dispersed Pt nanoparticles and nanonetworks are fabricated from (CH3O)3Si(CH2)3N(CH3)3+Cl- functionalized mesoporous silica MCM-48 with H2PtCl6 in ethanol and water solvent, and characterized by PXRD, XAS, TEM, and N2 adsorption. The solvent of H2PtCl6 solution is found to affect the mobility of Pt precursors and the resulting morphology of nanostructured metallic Pt. The effect of the intrachannel surface properties on the incorporation and the morphology of nanostructured Pt on the deposition of Pt(NH3)4Cl2 and H2PtCl6 on Al-doped or C-coated mesoporous silica MCM-41 is also studied relative to that on pure silica MCM-41.     

NMR provides checklist of generic properties for atomic-scale models of periodic mesoporous silicas

MCM-41 and SBA-15 silicas were studied by (29)Si solid-state NMR and (15)N NMR in the presence of (15)N-pyridine with the aim to formulate generic structural parameters that may be used as a checklist for atomic-scale structural models of this class of ordered mesoporous materials. High-quality MCM-41 silica constitutes quasi-ideal arrays of uniform-size pores with thin pore walls, while SBA-15 silica has thicker pore walls with framework and surface defects. The numbers of silanol (Q(3)) and silicate (Q(4)) groups were found to be in the ratio of about 1:3 for MCM-41 and about 1:4 for our SBA-15 materials. Combined with the earlier finding that the density of surface silanol groups is about three per nm(2) in MCM-41 (Shenderovich, et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 2003, 107, 11924) this allows us to discriminate between different atomic-scale models of these materials. Neither tridymite nor edingtonite meet both of these requirements. On the basis of the hexagonal pore shape model, the experimental Q(3):Q(4) ratio yields a wall thickness of about 0.95 nm for MCM-41 silica, corresponding to the width of ca. four silica tetrahedra. The arrangement of Q(3) groups at the silica surfaces was analyzed using postsynthesis surface functionalization. It was found that the number of covalent bonds to the surface formed by the functional reagents is affected by the surface morphology. It is concluded that for high-quality MCM-41 silicas the distance between neighboring surface silanol groups is greater than 0.5 nm. As a result, di- and tripodical reagents like (CH(3))(2)Si(OH)(2) and CH(3)Si(OH)(3) can form only one covalent bond to the surface. The residual hydroxyl groups of surface-bonded functional reagents either remain free or interact with other reagent molecules. Accordingly, the number of surface silanol groups at a given MCM-41 or SBA-15 silica may not decrease but increase after treatment with CH(3)Si(OH)(3) reagent. On the other hand, nearly all surface silanol groups could be functionalized when HN(Si(CH(3))(3))(2) was used.     

Tailoring pore properties of MCM-48 silica for selective adsorption of CO2

Four different types of amine-attached MCM-48 silicas were prepared and investigated for CO(2) separation from N(2). Monomeric and polymeric hindered and unhindered amines were attached to the pore surface of the MCM-48 silica and characterized with respect to their CO(2) sorption properties. The pore structures and amino group content in these modified silicas were investigated by XRD, FT-IR, TGA, N(2) adsorption/desorption at 77 K and CHN/Si analysis, which confirmed that in all cases the amino groups were attached to the pore surface of MCM-48 at 1.5-5.2 mmol/g. The N(2) adsorption/desorption analysis showed a considerable decrease of the pore volume and surface area for the MCM-48 silica containing a polymeric amine (e.g., polyethyleneimine). The CO(2) adsorption rates and capacities of the amine-attached MCM-48 samples were studied employing a sorption microbalance. The results obtained indicated that in addition to the concentration of surface-attached amino groups, specific interactions between CO(2) and the surface amino groups, and the resultant pore structure after amine group attachment have a significant impact on CO(2) adsorption properties of these promising adsorbent materials.     

新戊基钛在MCM-41表面的接枝反应及产物性质

采用原位红外光谱法在真空系统中考察了MCM-41分子筛表面与四新戊基钛Ti(CH2CMe3)4的反应,发现这个反应可在室温下定量进行,得到表面新戊基钛(≡Si－O)2Ti(CH2CMe3)2. 这种表面新戊基钛很容易与CH3OH、H2O和O2进一步发生反应分别得到(≡Si－O)2Ti(OCH3)2、(≡Si－O)2Ti(OH)2和(≡Si－O)2Ti(OCH2CMe3)2等表面化合物.在氧气中焙烧由(≡Si－O)2Ti(CH2CMe3)2水解所得的(≡Si－O)2Ti(OH)2可制得表面含钛MCM-41介孔分子筛（Ti-MCM-41）.元素分析、低温N2吸附-脱附、紫外可见漫反射光谱、X射线粉末衍射和FTIR等表征结果表明,接枝反应和后续的处理不破坏分子筛的介孔结构; Ti-MCM-41的比表面积和孔直径较MCM-41略有降低; Ti原子在Ti-MCM-41表面以TiO4四面体配位状态分散,并对乙烯氧化有较明显的光催化活性.论文还通过对Ti-MCM-41与水热合成骨架含钛[Ti]-MCM-41结构和光催化活性的比较,对分子筛类材料光催化作用机制进行了分析探讨.     

Immobilization of palladium in mesoporous silica matrix: preparation, characterization, and its catalytic efficacy in carbon-carbon coupling reactions

Palladium(0) has been immobilized into the silica-based mesoporous material to develop catalyst Pd(0)-MCM-41, which is found to be highly active in carbon-carbon coupling reactions. [Pd(NH3)4]2+ ions have been incorporated into the mesoporous material during synthesis of MCM-41 and subsequently upon treatments with hydrazine hydrate Pd2+ ions present in mesoporous silica matrix were reduced to Pd(0) almost instantaneously. The catalyst has been characterized by small-angle X-ray diffraction, N2 sorption, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM and surface area measurements clearly demonstrate that the immobilization of Pd(0) into the mesoporous silica has a significant effect on pore structure of the catalyst. Nevertheless, after immobilization of palladium the meso-porosity of the material is retained, as evidenced in the nitrogen sorption measurement. The TEM micrograph shows that both MCM-41 and Pd(0)-MCM-41 have similar types of external surface morphology; however, Pd(0)-MCM-41 was less ordered. Pd(0)-MCM-41 showed high catalytic activity toward carbon-carbon bond formation reactions like Heck and Sonogashira coupling, as evidenced in high turn-over numbers. In contrast to many other Pd-based catalysts reported so far, Pd(0)-MCM-41 acts as a truly heterogeneous catalyst in C-C coupling reactions. Notably, the new heterogeneous catalyst is found to be efficient in the activation of arylchloride to give impressive conversion in cross coupling (15-45% for Heck and 30% for Sonogashira) reactions under mild conditions.     

Synthesis of hydrothermally stable and long-range ordered Ce-MCM-48 and Fe-MCM-48 materials

The hydrothermally stable and long-range ordered Ce-MCM-48 and Fe-MCM-48 were conveniently synthesized at 393 K for 24 h by directly adding fluoride ions to the initial gel without posttreatment and pH adjustment. The Ce-MCM-48 with a Si/Ce of 200 and 100, which were prepared by directly adding fluoride ions, could still maintain their mesoporous structures after refluxing in boiling water for 3 days. The incorporation of Ce into MCM-48 could enhance the hydrothermal stability of MCM-48 in the absence of fluoride ions; however, the incorporation of Fe into MCM-48 materials barely improved the hydrothermal stability of MCM-48 materials. The effect of adding NaF was much more efficient in enhancement of hydrothermal stability than that of the incorporation of Ce. The addition of fluoride ions mainly improves the degree of polymerization of silicates. The Ce(4+) ions in Ce-MCM-48 appear to be present partly in tetrahedral coordination in the framework and partly as CeO(2) particles on the surface of framework. The Ce positioned on the surface of pore walls and in the framework both provide the protection against water attack.     

Heterogenisation of CpMo(CO)3Cl on mesoporous materials and its application as olefin epoxidation catalyst

CpMo(CO)(3)Cl reacts with the hydroxyl (Si-OH or Si-OH-Al) functionalities of mesoporous molecular sieves such as MCM-41, MCM-48 and its aluminium analogues during grafting. XRD, N(2) adsorption-desorption, BET surface area analysis and TEM show the resulting samples as being well ordered and maintaining a uniform pore size. FT-IR spectra, elemental analysis, (13)C and (29)Si CP MAS NMR spectra confirm the successful grafting. In the presence of excess TBHP the materials show high activity in cyclooctene epoxidation and good stability.     

有机官能团对硅基MSU-X织构性能的影响

采用有机硅氧烷(RTES)与硅氧烷(TEOS)共水解缩聚合成了有机官能化的MSU-1中孔材料(R=甲基,苯基,乙烯基,脲丙基)。当前驱体中RTES与TO64EOS的摩尔比为0.1:0.9时合成R10-MSU-1分子筛,通过现化分析技术证明BA所选有机官能团均能进入分子筛骨架,而且在相同摩尔数的各数有机硅氧烷存在下,由于其反应速率、空间位阻的不同使其对骨架的缩聚程度、孔道和表面性质有不同的影响。利用SAXS实验技术对所合成R10-MSU-1材料结构表面以及由于有机官能团的存在对无机骨架产生的影响进行了研究。SAXS较强的散射强度分布对Porod定理形成负偏离,表明孔和基体之间有明显的界而层存在,并求得界面层的平均厚度。实验证明有机基团的均匀分布于孔道表面而形成有机界面层。SAXS测试还显示上述分子筛呈质量分形特征,其形成过程可能为非平衡非线性的聚集机制。     

Removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions using EDCC-MCM-41: Isotherm,kinetics and thermodynamic evaluation

Abstract

EDCC-MCM-41, a novel ethylenediamine derivative of MCM-41 was synthesized from a sugar industry waste, bagasse fly ash. Studies were carried out on its ability to remove Cr(VI) from aqueous solution. Its performance was also compared with that of unmodified MCM-41 and an already known derivative NH₂-MCM-41 (both also synthesized from bagasse fly ash) at the same experimental conditions. Results show that the novel adsorbent produced a better sorption performance (adsorption capacity of 49.04?mg g^?1) than MCM-41 and NH₂-MCM-41 which produced adsorption capacities of 13.78?mg g^?1 and 25.29?mg g^?1 respectively. Thermodynamics, kinetics and isotherm studies confirm that the sorption process involving the novel adsorbent is favorable for Cr(VI) and can best be represented by pseudo-second-order kinetics model. The sorption process was also found to be multistep, involving both film diffusion and intraparticle diffusion into the pores on the adsorbent’s surface.

Abbreviations: BFA: Bagasse Fly Ash; MCM-41: Mobil Composition of matter no. 41; NH2-MCM-41: mine functionalized MCM-41; EDCC-MCM-41: Ethylenediamine grafted MCM-41; qe: Mass of material adsorbed at equilibrium per mass of adsorbent; qt: Mass of material adsorbed at any time t per mass of adsorbent; C0: The initial concentration; Ce: The residual concentration at equilibrium; Ct: Residual concentration at any time t; W: The weight of adsorbents; rRMSD: Root mean square deviation; R: Gas constant     

Determination of the constants of affinity of FeCl3, CuCl2, and ZnCl2 for a nitrogen-containing organosilane bonded on Al2O3-cellulose acetate hybrid material surface from ethanol solution

This work describes the preparation and characterization of a cellulose acetate fiber coated with Al(2)O(3), resulting in the organic-inorganic hybrid Cel/Al(2)O(3). Furthermore, the hybrid was modified by attaching organofunctional groups by reaction with the precursor reagents (RO)(3)Si(CH(2))(3)L (L=NH(2), NH(CH(2))(2)NH(2), NH(CH(2))(2)NH(CH(2))(2)NH(2), and N(2)C(3)H(3) (imidazole)), resulting in Cel/Al(2)O(3)/Si(CH(2))(3)NH(2) (1), Cel/Al(2)O(3)/Si(CH(2))(3)NH(CH(2))(2)NH(2) (2), Cel/Al(2)O(3)/Si(CH(2))(3)NH(CH(2))(2)NH(CH(2))(2)NH(2) (3), and Cel/Al(2)O(3)/Si(CH(2))(3)N(2)C(3)H(3) (4). The amounts of attached organofunctional groups were (in mmol per gram of the material) 1=1.90, 2=1.89, 3=1.66, and 4=1.35. The isotherms of adsorption of FeCl(3), CuCl(2), and ZnCl(2) by Cel/Al(2)O(3)/Si(CH(2))(3)L from ethanol solutions were obtained at 298 K. Accurate estimates of the specific sorption capacities and the heteregeneous stability constants of the immobilized metal complexes were determined with the aid of several computational procedures. It is shown that the sorptional capacities are much less than the concentrations of the attached organofunctional groups. As all sorption isotherms are fitted properly with the Langmuir isotherm equation, the effects of the energetic heterogeneity and the lateral interactions do not affect the chemisorption equilibria. The heterogeneous stability constants of the immobilized complexes are fairly high, which provides efficient removal of the metal ions from solutions by the hybrid materials.     

Preparation of supported mesoporous thin films concerning template removal by supercritical fluid extraction

Thin films of silicate MCM-41 and silicate MCM-48 have been prepared on porous ceramic supports by the hydrothermal method. A comparative study of template removal has been made on supported thin films and on powder. By supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) with CH(3)OH-modified CO(2), at least 78% of the template can be removed from as-synthesized materials at 85 degrees C. X-ray diffraction (XRD) observations indicate that the resulting supported thin films after SFE are structurally stable and ordered with a weak pore contraction. The advantages of SFE over calcination in template removal are presented with a series of results obtained on supported thin films and on powder by XRD and N(2) adsorption-desorption.     

介孔分子筛MCM-48的室温合成与表面修饰

在室温条件下的碱性介质中合成了介孔分子筛MCM-48，并对其进行了有机官能团表面修饰。利用HRTEM、低温N₂吸附、XRD、TG、IR和NMR等手段对产物进行了结构和性能分析。实验结果表明，合成产物MCM-48具有规则的孔道结构、大比表面积、大孔容和窄分布的孔径。由硅烷试剂表面修饰后的MCM-48，由于有机官能团接枝在MCM-48的内表面，占据了孔道内部空间，使其比表面积、孔容和孔径都减小。     

Characterizations and Catalytic Properties of Transition Metal Ions Incorporated in Mesoporous Materials

Mesoporous materials typified by MCM-41 possess well-ordered mesoporous channels with controllable pore sizes from 2-30 nm, and are expected as desirable materials for catalysis.However, silicious mesoporous materials generally do not have sufficient intrinsic catalytic activities.Thus many studies have focused on introducing catalytically active sites. It is expected that different synthetic methods would result in different coordination structures of metal cations introduced in MCM-41, and thus different catalytic properties in catalytic reactions. The author's group has used two methods, i.e., direct hydrothermal synthesis (DHT) and template-ion exchange (TIE), for the syntheses of V-, Fe-, and Cr-MCM-41 and applied them as catalysts to selective oxidations of hydrocarbons. This paper highlights the characterizations of the coordination structures of these metal cations introduced into MCM-41 by the DHT and the TIE methods, and the structural-property relationships of these metal ion-containing MCM-41 materials in selective oxidation reactions.MCM-41 was prepared by hydrothermal synthesis using hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide and sodium silicate as the sources of template and silicon, respectively. In the DHT method, metal cations were directly added into the synthesis gel before hydrothermal synthesis, while the exchanging of metal ions in ethanolic solutions with the template cations contained in the uncalcined MCM-41 was performed in the TIE method. XRD and N2-adsorption measurements showed that the mesoporous regularity was not destroyed with both synthetic methods for all the metal ion-containing MCM-41 with appropriate contents of metal cations.For V-MCM-41, the characterizations with mainly EXAFS suggested that V5+ cations were in tetrahedral coordination and mainly incorporated inside the framework of MCM-41 to substitute Si4+in the samples by the DHT method. Tetrahedrally coordinated Vanadyl species were also obtained by the TIE method, but the VO4 was dispersed on the wall surface of MCM-41. The V-MCM-41-DHT showed higher selectivity in the partial oxidations of C3H8 and i-C4H10 to alkenes and acrolein and methacrolein, but the V-MCM-41-TIE exhibited better catalytic activities in the partial oxidation of CH4 to HCHO and the oxidative dehydrogenation of C2H6.For Fe-MCM-41, EXAFS studies indicated that the DHT method also resulted in Fe3+ cations incorporated inside the framework of MCM-41 if iron content was lower than ca. 1 wt%. However,aggregated iron oxides with iron in octahedral coordination were mainly observed in the calcined Fe-MCM-41 by the TIE method. In the partial oxidation of CH4 to HCHO with O2 and the epoxidation of styrene with H2O2, the Fe-MCM-41 by the DHT method exhibits remarkably higher catalytic performances than that by the TIE method.Chromium could not be incorporated inside the framework of MCM-41 to substitute Si4+, and both synthetic methods led to surface chromate species. However, the DHT method resulted in only monochromate species on the wall surface of MCM-41 while polychromate species existed over the sample by the TIE method as indicated by the UV-Raman spectroscopic studies. The two types of Cr-MCM-41 exhibited distinctly different catalytic behaviors in the partial oxidation of CH4 with O2.The Cr-MCM-41-DHT was remarkably more selective towards HCHO formation.     

Low-cost and effective phenol and basic dyes trapper derived from the porous silica coated with hydrotalcite gel

Novel low-cost and effective adsorbents of phenol and basic dyes were made by coating amorphous silica with hydrotalcite (HT) gel followed by soaking in alkaline solution, and the surface basic-acidic properties of resulting composites were evaluated by CO(2)-TPD, Hammett indicator method and NH(3)-TPD, respectively. Both BET surface area and microporous surface area of the composites were increased after they were soaked with alkaline solution; meanwhile the center of pore size distribution was changed from 9 to 3-4 nm. These composites efficiently captured phenol in gaseous and liquid phases, superior to mesoporous silica such as MCM-48 or SBA-15 and zeolite NaY, and the equilibrium data of gaseous adsorption could be well fitted to Freundlich model. These modified silicas also exhibited high adsorption capacity forward basic dyes such as crystal violet (CV) and leuco-crystal violet (LCV), reaching the adsorption equilibrium within 1 h and offering a new material for environment protection.     

Hemicyanine dye as a surfactant for the synthesis of bicontinuous cubic mesostructured silica

In this paper, we developed a facile way to synthesize highly ordered optically active MCM-48 at room temperature, by using mixtures of hemicyanine dye N-alkyl-2-[p-(N,N-diethylamino)-o-(alkyloxy)]pyridinium bromide (denoted as o-CnPOCm, Scheme 1) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as the structure-directing agents. The mesoporous materials were systematically characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, nitrogen sorption, and thermogravimetry. The resultant MCM-48 exhibits unusually high thermal stability. For example, in the case of o-C(2)POC(14), it can retain its cubic structure even under calcinations at 900 degrees C for 5 h, although the pore size is shifted to the micropore region because of shrinkage of the framework. The typical surface area and pore volume are 980 m(2)/g and 0.44 cm(3)/g, respectively, for the powder calcined under such a high temperature. This is the first report of room-temperature synthesis of MCM-48 with such good thermal stability using cationic-cationic mixed surfactant as the structure-directing agent. The fluorescence lifetimes of the as-synthesized mesostructured MCM-48 were also measured, and the result showed that the incorporated dye molecules have a 1 order of magnitude longer lifetime than that of free species in solution, showing that the hemicyanine dye molecules are well dispersed within the CTAB surfactant matrix. Furthermore, we compared eight other dye congeners (Scheme 1) to fully investigate the mesophase resulting from the dye-CTAB system. The results show that, upon addition of the dye surfactant to the starting mixtures, the mesostructured silica undergoes an intrinsic phase-transition process; however, specific dye geometry is required to obtain MCM-48 at room temperature. Those functionalities as well as the designed synthesis of this novel mesostructured MCM-48 material promise a bright future in multifunctional optical and electric nano- and microdevices (e.g., waveguides, laser, light-emitting diodes, etc.) and also shed light on the self-assembly behavior in complex colloidal system.     

Electrostatic-gated transport in chemically modified glass nanopore electrodes

Electrostatic-gated transport in chemically modified glass nanopore electrodes with orifice radii as small as 15 nm is reported. A single conical-shaped nanopore in glass, with a approximately 1 microm radius Pt disk located at the pore base, is prepared by etching the exposed surface of a glass-sealed Pt nanodisk. The electrochemical response of the nanopore electrode corresponds to diffusion of redox-active species through the nanopore orifice to the Pt microdisk. Silanization of the exterior glass surface with Cl(Me)(2)Si(CH(2))(3)CN and the interior pore surface with EtO(Me)(2)Si(CH(2))(3)NH(2) introduces pH-dependent ion selectivity at the pore orifice, a consequence of the electrostatic interactions between the redox ions and protonated surface amines. Nanopore electrodes with very small pore orifice radii (< approximately 50 nm) display anion permselectively at pH < 4, as demonstrated by electrochemical measurement of transport through the pore orifice. Ion selective transport vanishes at pH > 6 or when the pore radius is significantly larger than the Debye screening length, consistent with the observed ion selectivity resulting from electrostatic interactions. The ability to introduce different surface functionalities to the interior and exterior surfaces of glass nanopores is demonstrated using fluorescence microscopy to monitor the localized covalent attachment of 5- (and 6)-carboxytetramethylrhodamine succinimidyl ester to interior pore surfaces previously silanized with EtO(Me)(2)Si(CH(2))(3)NH(2).     

Amino-functionalized mesoporous silica modified glassy carbon electrode for ultra-trace copper(II) determination

This paper described a facile and direct electrochemical method for the determination of ultra-trace Cu²⁺ by employing amino-functionalized mesoporous silica (NH₂-MCM-41) as enhanced sensing platform. NH₂-MCM-41 was prepared by using a post-grafting process and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. NH₂-MCM-41 modified glassy carbon (GC) electrode showed higher sensitivity for anodic stripping voltammetric (ASV) detection of Cu²⁺ than that of MCM-41 modified one. The high sensitivity was attributed to synergistic effect between MCM-41 and amino-group, in which the high surface area and special mesoporous morphology of MCM-41 can cause strong physical absorption, and amino-groups are able to chelate copper ions. Some important parameters influencing the sensor response were optimized. Under optimum experimental conditions the sensor linearly responded to Cu²⁺ concentration in the range from 5 to 1000 ng L⁻¹ with a detection limit of 0.9 ng L⁻¹ (S/N = 3). Moreover, the sensor possessed good stability and electrode renewability. In the end, the proposed sensor was applied for determining Cu²⁺ in real samples and the accuracy of the results were comparable to those obtained by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) method.     

Synthesis and characterization of M-MCM-48 (M = Cr,Ce) from silatrane via sol–gel process

Chromium and cerium incorporated into MCM-48 framework are hydrothermally synthesized via sol–gel process without any additives and characterized by X-ray diffraction, N₂ adsorption/desorption, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Diffuse reflectance UV–vis spectroscopy, and Thermogravimetric analysis. Results indicate that the materials possess a long-range ordered structure, high specific surface area, and narrow pore size distribution. SEM images illustrate the edge-truncated octahedron morphology of Cr-MCM-48 while Ce-MCM-48 preserves the truncated octahedron of the MCM-48 parent material. TEM images show the pore network of Ia3d symmetry after loading metals. Spectroscopic data confirm the existence of metals in the framework and extra-framework. At low Cr content, Cr-MCM-48 contains only Cr(VI) species while rich Cr content loading results in both the Cr(VI) and Cr(III) species. The hydrothermal stability of MCM-48 is enhanced by carefully incorporating metals into the parent material.     

Effect of hydrothermal treatment on the structure, stability and acidity of Al containing MCM-41 and MCM-48 synthesised at room temperature

The effect of hydrothermal treatment of the synthesis gel on the structure, hydrothermal and mechanical stabilities and acidity of MCM-41 and MCM-48 aluminosilicates synthesised at room temperature has been investigated by X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption at 77 K and DRIFTS with pyridine as probe molecule. The influence of the Al content and pore size on the structure of the resulting treated Al-MCM-41 materials has also been studied. For all samples improvement of the structural ordering and increase of the pore size, was observed, with pore wall thickness remaining practically unchanged. For Al-MCM-48 an improvement of the pore size uniformity occurs during the treatment. Only a small loss of pore size uniformity occurred for Al-MCM-41 prepared with hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide, but with samples prepared with tetra and octadecyltrimethylammonium bromide the treatment generated a bimodal pore size distribution. The pore volume increased (17%) in the case of Al-MCM-48 but decreased (5.5–14%) for Al-MCM-41, suggesting a decrease in surface roughness resulting from increase of the degree of condensation of the pore walls. Both treated and untreated samples presented relatively strong Brønsted sites and increase of the Lewis acidity was found to occur upon treatment. Treated samples were found to be more resistant to refluxing in boiling water and mechanical compaction, which was attributed to more polymerised pore walls, with Al-MCM-41 samples tested demonstrating higher stability than Al-MCM-48. However, the differences in stability of samples prepared with or without hydrothermal treatment were not significant. Both treated and untreated samples presented high hydrothermal stability. Although refluxing in boiling water lead to some loss of structural ordering, only a small decrease of pore volume (3–5.5% for Al-MCM-41 and 8-14% for Al-MCM-48) occurred, with practically no alterations in pore size and wall thickness. Ordered mesopore structure, with narrower pores and thicker walls, was still observed after compression at 590 MPa for most of the samples tested.