Silica-alumina materials

The first commercial fluidized cracking catalyst was acid-treated natural clay. Later, synthetic. silica-alumina materials containing 10 lo... 

The Ag-silica-alumina material is furthermore suited to assist in sterically hindered aromatic brominations. As an example we converted 1,3,5-tri-t-butylbenzene into 2,4,6-tri-t-butylbromobenzene. When using an acidic zeolite and Br2 de-alkylation prevails and 3,5-di-t-butylbromobenzene is formed (ref. 29). 

Bronsted acid sites can be directly probed through solid-state H NMR spectroscopy, as chemical shifts can be correlated with acid strength [195, 197, 198]. The precise chemical shift observed for any given Bronsted acid site is dependent on the material upon which it is located. For instance, on silica values of 1.6ppm are typically observed zirconia has two distinct OH sites, at 2.4 and 4.8ppm while on alumina a typical range may be -0.2 to 4.3 ppm. Early studies employing H NMR to study Bronsted acid sites focused on the characterization of the surface of amorphous silica-alumina materials [165, 199-201]. Extensive work, however. 

Amorphous silica-alumina materials represent an important class of porous inorganic solids which have not long-range order and usually have a wide distribution of the pore size, in the micro and mesopore region. They show outstanding catalytic behaviours in several acid catalysed reactions (5, 6). 

In order to evaluate correctly the textural properties a carefully selection of calculation method is necessary. Evaluation of micropore volume in ERS-8 and SA calculated with Dubinin-Radushkevich and DFT are consistent, instead an overestimate value is observed with Horvath-Kavazoe method. The pore size distribution of MSA, MCM-41, HMS and commercial silica-alumina materials have been evaluated by BJH and DFT method. Only DFT model is effective, in particular for evaluation in the border line range between micro and mesopores. 

Nanostructured heterogeneous catalysts were prepared by supporting amines on silica-alumina materials (SA-NR2) via post-modification methodology. The promising adjacent position of acid and base sites on the SA-NR2 allowed high catalytic activity for various organic transformations such as cyanoethoxycarbonylation (Scheme 3.38 route a) and the nitroaldol reaction (Scheme 3.38 route b). ... 

In the writing of this chapter it has become apparent that very little information on the subject is available from the existing literature. The material presented, therefore, is for a very large part drawn from studies carried out at the Houdry Laboratories. It should be pointed out that when acidity of the silica-alumina material is mentioned, the term is placed in quotes because it is not believed that an actual acid is present. The term acidity as used means rather an ability to react with a base. 

As the zeolite lattice dealuminates, the aluminum can form three chemically distinct non framework aluminum species identifiable by Al MASNMR. Octahedral and tetrahedral species commonly occur in alumina and in silica alumina materials including zeolites and are identifiable by a chemical shift of about 0 (octahedral) (24) and 52 ppm to 62 ppm (tetrahedral) (25). It is... 

A great many materials have been used as catalyst supports in hydrogena-tion, but most of these catalyst have been in a quest for an improved system. The majority of catalyst supports are some form of carbon, alumina, or silica-alumina. Supports such as calcium carbonate or barium sulfate may give better yields of B in reactions of the type A- B- C, exemplified by acetylenes- cjs-olefins, apparently owing to a weaker adsorption of the intermediate B. Large-pore supports that allow ready escape of B may give better selectivities than smaller-pore supports, but other factors may influence selectivity as well. 

Adsorption processes use a solid material (adsorbent) possessing a large surface area and the ability to selectively adsorb a gas or a liquid on its surface. Examples of adsorbents are silica (Si02), anhydrous alumina (AI2O3), and molecular sieves (crystalline silica/alumina). Adsorption processes may be used to remove acid gases from natural gas and gas streams. For example, molecular sieves are used to dehydrate natural gas and to reduce its acid gases. 

The raw materials needed to supply about ten million new automobiles a year do not impose a difficult problem except in the case of the noble metals. Present technology indicates that each car may need up to ten pounds of pellets, two pounds of monoliths, or two pounds of metal alloys. The refractory oxide support materials are usually a mixture of silica, alumina, magnesia, lithium oxide, and zirconium oxide. Fifty thousand tons of such materials a year do not raise serious problems (47). The base metal oxides requirement per car may be 0.1 to 1 lb per car, or up to five thousand tons a year. The current U.S. annual consumption of copper, manganese, and chromium is above a million tons per year, and the consumption of nickel and tungsten above a hundred thousand tons per year. The only important metals used at the low rate of five thousand tons per year are cobalt, vanadium, and the rare earths. 

While our discussion will mainly focus on sifica, other oxide materials can also be used, and they need to be characterized with the same rigorous approach. For example, in the case of meso- and microporous materials such as zeolites, SBA-15, or MCM materials, the pore size, pore distribution, surface composition, and the inner and outer surface areas need to be measured since they can affect the grafting step (and the chemistry thereafter) [5-7]. Some oxides such as alumina or silica-alumina contain Lewis acid centres/sites, which can also participate in the reactivity of the support and the grafted species. These sites need to be characterized and quantified this is typically carried out by using molecular probes (Lewis bases) such as pyridine [8,9],... 

In view of catalytic potential applications, there is a need for a convenient means of characterization of the porosity of new catalyst materials in order to quickly target the potential industrial catalytic applications of the studied catalysts. The use of model test reactions is a characterization tool of first choice, since this method has been very successful with zeolites where it precisely reflects shape-selectivity effects imposed by the porous structure of tested materials. Adsorption of probe molecules is another attractive approach. Both types of approaches will be presented in this work. The methodology developed in this work on zeolites Beta, USY and silica-alumina may be appropriate for determination of accessible mesoporosity in other types of dealuminated zeolites as well as in hierarchical materials presenting combinations of various types of pores. 

As already mentioned, the acidity of the HY zeolite precludes its use as a support for Fe3(C0)- 29 then iron particles. The same behaviour is observed for Fe3(C0) 2 silica alumina system. This material, when decomposed at 200°C is not an efficient catalyst for F-T synthesis and only C-j-C products are... 

The main components of FCC catalysts are Zeolite Y, e.g., REY orUSY as the major active component (10 to 50%), and a binder that is typically an amorphous alumina, silica-alumina, or clay material. In addition to these main components, other zeolite components, e.g., ZSM-5, and other oxide or salt components are quite frequently used additives in the various FCC catalysts available on the market. The addition of 1 to 5% ZSM-5 increases the octane number of the gasoline. ZSM-5 eliminates feed compounds with low octane numbers because it preferentially center-cracks n-paraffins producing butene and propene [14], These short-chain olefins are then used as alkylation feedstocks... 

However, with respect to ee, the same catalyst immobilized on amorphous silica performed even better (conversion 72%, ee 92%) than the one immobilized on MCM-41. This example illustrates an important issue, i.e., OMS-based catalysts have to be compared with those based on amorphous silica or silica-alumina. If the amorphous materials perform as well or even better than the OMS materials, then there is no advantage in using the significantly more expensive OMSs. However, in those cases where the catalytic reaction benefits from the regular and well-defined pore systems of the OMS materials, such materials can be very attractive, e.g., for the conversion of bulkier molecules or to overcome transport limitations in more narrow pores. 

Ordered mesoporous materials of compositions other than silica or silica-alumina are also accessible. Employing the micelle templating route, several oxidic mesostructures have been made. Unfortunately, the pores of many such materials collapse upon template removal by calcination. The oxides in the pore walls are often not very well condensed or suffer from reciystallization of the oxides. In some cases, even changes of the oxidation state of the metals may play a role. Stabilization of the pore walls in post-synthesis results in a material that is rather stable toward calcination. By post-synthetic treatment with phosphoric acid, stable alumina, titania, and zirconia mesophases were obtained (see [27] and references therein). The phosphoric acid results in further condensation of the pore walls and the materials can be calcined with preservation of the pore system. Not only mesoporous oxidic materials but also phosphates, sulfides, and selenides can be obtained by surfactant templating. These materials have pore systems similar to OMS materials. 

The SEA approach can be applied to a novel system in three steps (1) measure the PZC of the oxide (or carbon) and choose a metal cation for low-PZC materials and an anion for high-PZC materials, (2) perform an uptake-pH survey to determine the pH of the strongest interaction in the appropriate pH regime (high pH for low PZC and vice versa), and (3) tune the calcination/reduction steps to maintain high dispersion. Highly dispersed Pt materials have been prepared in this way over silica, alumina, and carbon. Other oxides can be employed similarly. For bimetallics, the idea is to first adsorb a well-dispersed metal that forms an oxide intermediate with a PZC very different to the support. In this way the second metal can be directed onto the first metal oxide by SEA. Reduction may then result in relatively homogeneous bimetallic particles. 

Most importantly, biomass pyrolysis will be carried out at remote locations, and in distributed manner. Thus, the catalysts should be cheap and simple to use. Acidic clays, silica aluminas and H-FAU type zeolites are relatively cheap and robust materials, can be mixed easily with heat carriers, and used for pyrolysis. Efficient contact between the solids (catalyst and biomass) to maximize catalytic action is one of the challenges that need to be overcome. 

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