POROUS MATERIAL FOR CATALYSIS

Abstract

Zeolites possess good hydrothermal stability as well as strong acidity. However, the microporous nature of this material often imposes diffusion limitation to bulky substrates and products. This problem can be overcome with materials with bigger pores. This thesis explores a one pot synthesis of heteroatom containing (Al, Zr) mesoporous silica material (MSU-3) as well as its application for catalytic reactions. These samples were prepared via soft template synthesis using a non-ionic surfactant, Pluronic P-123 as the structure directing agent and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as the silica source. A one pot hydrogenation and dehydration of 4’-methoxypropiophenone to trans-anethole were effectively carried out using Zr-MSU-3. The Al-MSU-3 catalysts synthesised were tested in the catalysis of Friedel-Craft alkylation between benzyl alcohol and p-xylene. Both mesoporous catalysts were found to be more active than their microporous zeolite counterparts.