Facile synthesis of al-pillared mesoporous montmorillonite assisted with concentrated Al13 solution

Abstract

Al-pillared mesoporous montmorillonite was facilely synthesized from concentrated Al13 solution obtained by vacuum concentrating-ultrasonic pillaring strategy. Concentrated Al13 solution could reduce the process of pillare and increase pillaring efficiency. The absolute value of layer distance could be increased by 0.96 nm via concentrated Al13 solution pillare. 27Al NMR indicates that Al Keggin ions of concentrated Al13 are arranged in a more regular way by vacuum concentrating method. The Al-pillared mesoporous montmorillonite from concentrated Al13 solution has bigger specific surface area and even pore size distribution which were characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD) and nitrogen adsorption measurement. Furthermore the catalytic activity of Al-pillared montmorillonite loaded Ni and Mo catalysts was tested by the hydrodesulfurization of thiophene. The thiophene conversion reached 77.5%, which was higher than the corresponding value reported in the literature.