Preparation of mesoporous alumina with large pore size and their supported rhenium oxide catalysts in metathesis of 1-butene and 2-butene to propene

Mesoporous γ-aluminas with large pore size(up to 19 nm,denoted as MA19) are prepared from dispersed pseudo-boehmite using pluronic P123 as template.It is found that these mesoporous alumina supported rhenium oxide catalysts were more active and have far longer working life-span in gas-phase metathesis of 1-butene and 2-butene to propene than rhenium oxide on conventional alumina with small pore size(5 nm).At 60°C and atmospheric pressure with WHSV = 1 h-1,the similar stable conversions of butene(ca.55%) for all the 13 wt% Re 2 O 7 /alumina catalysts were obtained near the chemical equilibrium,and the stable working life-spans of Re 2 O 7 /MA19 were far longer than that of Re 2 O 7 /Al 2 O 3,being about 70 h and 20 h,respectively.