Structured mesoporous Mn, Fe, and Co oxides: Synthesis, physicochemical, and catalytic properties

Structured mesoporous Mn, Fe, and Co oxides are synthesized using “soft” and “hard” templates; the resulting materials are characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, BET, and TG. It is shown that in the first case, the oxides have high surface areas of up to 450 m²/g that are preserved after calcination of the material up to 300°C. Even though, the surface area of the oxides prepared by the “hard-template” method does not exceed 100 m²/g; it is, however, thermally stable up to 500°C. Catalytic activity of mesoporous oxides in methanol conversion was found to depend on both the nature of the transition metal and the type of template used in synthesis.