Facile synthesis of highly ordered mesoporous chromium–alumina catalysts with improved catalytic activity and stability

Journal of Materials Research volume 29, pages811–819(2014)Cite this article

Abstract

The highly ordered mesoporous chromium–alumina catalysts (denoted as OMCA(x)) with different nAl/nCr ratios of 10 and 20 have been successfully synthesized via an evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) pathway associated with thermal treatment and were applied to the liquid phase oxidation of cyclohexane with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an oxidant. For comparison studies, a chromium catalyst with the nAl/nCr ratio of 10 supported on an ordered mesoporous alumina support [denoted as Cr/OMA(10)] was also prepared by an incipient wetness impregnation (IWI) method. Although both kinds of catalysts retained a unidimensionally ordered mesoporous structure, textural properties of the catalysts were significantly affected by the preparation method. The characteristic results from XRD, N2 adsorption, TEM, UV-Vis, 27Al MNS NMR, and H2-TPR showed that the OMCA(x) catalysts exhibited much more highly ordered hexagonal mesostructure, narrower pore-size distribution, higher Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area and pore volume, and more homogeneous distribution of Cr species in mesoporous alumina framework in the form of tetrahedrally coordinated hexavalent Cr-oxide moieties than those of Cr/OMA(10) synthesized by an IWI method. In addition, in comparison with Cr/OMA(10), OMCA(x) catalysts showed higher catalytic activity and stability for the liquid phase oxidation of cyclohexane.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51172154), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2012M510783), the Shanxi Province Science Foundation for Youths (2012021006-2 and 2013021008-3), and the Science and Technology Project of Shanxi Province (20130313001-3).

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  1. Research Centre of Energy Chemical and Catalytic Technology, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, People’s Republic of China

    Dahai Pan, Min Guo, Min He, Shuwei Chen, Xu Wang, Feng Yu & Ruifeng Li

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  1. Dahai Pan
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  2. Min Guo
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  3. Min He
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Correspondence to Ruifeng Li.

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Pan, D., Guo, M., He, M. et al. Facile synthesis of highly ordered mesoporous chromium–alumina catalysts with improved catalytic activity and stability. Journal of Materials Research 29, 811–819 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.43

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