Characteristics of nanosized ruthenium metal by chemical reduction method

Nano-sized Ru metals have been prepared by the chemical reduction of ruthenium chloride and ruthenium hydroxide. Sodium borohydride was used as a reducing agent. The samples have been characterized by elemental analysis, X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, and transmission electron microscopy. The preparation method greatly affects the composition and surface area of the material. All the samples show nanosized particles. However, samples prepared by reduction of ruthenium hydroxide had a lower surface area and larger particle size than those prepared by reduction of ruthenium chloride. Residual amount of boron was present in the samples. The samples demonstrate amorphous structure.     

The Synthesis and Characteristics of Vanadoaluminosilicate MCM-41 Mesoporous Molecular Sieves

A series of vanadoaluminosilicate MCM-41 mesoporous molecular sieves with various compositions have been hydrothermally synthesized. Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide was used as a surfactant in the synthesis. The samples were characterized with nitrogen sorption, X-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform-Infrared spectroscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and solid state NMR. The solid products had the MCM-41 structure and contained only atomically dispersed vanadium and aluminum consistent with framework vanadium and aluminum. The samples were hydrophobic and contained large amount of surfactant in the as-synthesized samples. The surfactant could be removed upon calcination at 450°C. N₂ sorption measurements and TEM demonstrate the high mesoporosity of [V, Al]-MCM-41. The incorporation of vanadium and aluminum into MCM-41 decreased the surface area to some extent. The morphologies of all the samples were the agglomerate of plates. ²⁹Si MAS NMR shows that the pore wall is amorphous. ²⁷Al MAS NMR shows that all of aluminum species were tetrahedrally coordinated even after calcination at 550°C.     

Characterization of V-MCM-41 Mesoporous Materials

A series of vanadosilicate V-MCM-41 mesoporous materials with various compositions have been synthesized using vanadium sulfate as the source of vanadium. Hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide was used as a surfactant in the synthesis. The samples were characterized with nitrogen sorption, X-ray diffraction, framework FTIR, diffuse reflectance UV-visible spectroscopy, differential thermal analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results show that the solid products had the MCM-41 structure and contained only atomically dispersed vanadium consistent with framework vanadium in V-MCM-41. N₂ sorption measurements and TEM demonstrated the high mesoporosity of V-MCM-41. The incorporation of vanadium into MCM-41 decreased the surface area to some extent. The morphology of V-MCM-41 was plate with stepped and smooth surfaces. TEM reveals a regular hexagonal array of uniform channels with curved and rectilinear morphologies. The hexagonal array structure of uniform pore size was observed by TEM. It is proved that the pores were highly aligned.     

Synthesis of Micropore/Mesopore Composite Materials

The objective of this study was to synthesize micropore-mesopore composite materials by two-step crystallization. The colloidal MFI was first synthesized using a structure-directing agent tetrapropylammonium hydroxide as a template in the first step. This colloid was then self-assembled to form mesoporous structure by using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as a surfactant. These materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, nitrogen sorption, SEM and TEM. Due to the thick walls produced, it cannot sustain the local strain caused by the crystallization: the mesostructure is collapsed upon heating. The mixed phases of MFI and MCM-41 were obtained by optimizing the synthesis times and reaction temperatures.