Preparation and catalytic activity of mesoporous Al-SBA-16 solid acid catalysts

Materials Chemistry Division, School of Advanced Sciences, VIT University, Vellore-632 014,

Tamilnadu, India

E-mail : cheralathan.k@vit.ac.in

Department of Chemical System Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Mesoporous aluminosilicates with Si/Al ratio = 50 have been synthesized from SBA-16 by post synthetic aluminum incorporation into the silica framework. The aluminum sources used for Al incorporation were aluminum isoproproxide and sodium aluminate. Characterization by low angle XRD and N₂ adsorption has been carried out for the confirmation of 3D cubic pore structure of mesoporous aluminosilicates. The obtained mesoporous aluminosilicates and H-ZSM-5 zeolites were used as catalysts for liquid phase esterification of benzyl alcohol with hexanoic acid. The liquid-phase esterification reaction is used as a tool to probe the interdependence of mesoporosity, acidity and method of aluminium incorporation. The catalytic activity results suggest that apart from acidity, mesoporosity is required for catalyzing the reaction.