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Author(s) |
Selvaraj, M.; Pandurangan, A.; Seshadri, K. S.; Sinha, P. K.; Lal, K. B.; and others (BARCF-K)
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Source |
Journal of Molecular Catalysis-A, 2003. Vol. 192: pp. 153-170 |
ABSTRACT
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The mesoporous molecular sieves Al-MCM-41 with Si/Al ratio equal to 30, was synthesized under hydrothermal conditions using cetyltrimethylammonium (CTMA+) surfactants as template in the absence of auxiliary organics. The same ratio of Al-MCM-41 materials was impregnated using sulfuric acid, the materials such as sulfated Al-MCM-41 (SO42−/Al-MCM-41). The mesoporous materials, viz. Al-MCM-41 and SO42−/Al-MCM-41 were characterized using several techniques, e.g. inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), nephelometer, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform-infra red spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric–differential thermal analyzer (TG–DTA) and nitrogen adsorption measurements. ICP-AES studies indicated the content of Al in the mesoporous materials. Nephelometer studies indicated the SO42− content in the SO42−/Al-MCM-41. XRD studies indicated that the calcined materials of Al-MCM-41 and SO42−/Al-MCM-41 had the standard MCM-41 structure. FT-IR studies indicated that Al ions were incorporated on the hexagonal mesoporous of Al-MCM-41 and sulfuric acid was impregnated into hexagonal Al-MCM-41 materials. Thermal stabilityof the as-synthesized Al-MCM-41 materials and SO42−/Al-MCM-41 materials was studied using TG/DTA. The surface area, pore diameter, and pore volume of the mesoporous materials were calculated by BET and BJH equations, respectively. Crystallinity, surface area, pore diameter and pore volume of SO42−/Al-MCM-41 decreased and expelling the aluminum from the Al-MCM-41 framework increased the Lewis acidity. The catalytic results were compared with those obtained by using sulfuric acid, amorphous silica-alumina, H-β, USY and H-ZSM-5 zeolites. The SO42−/Al-MCM-41 catalysts was found to be more effective in the ethoxylation of hydroxyl biaromatics, for example, in the production of ethyl β-naphthyl ether (neroline) from β-naphthol using ethyl acetate as the ethoxylating reagent. The SO42−/Al-MCM-41 catalyst exclusively forms the product of ethyl β-naphthyl ether and has much higher yields than other catalysts except USY. |
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