Factors Affect on the Synthesis of Silica-Pillared Zirconium Phosphate with Template-Directing Self-Assembly Method and its Epoxidation Catalytic Performance

Abstract

A series of silica-pillared zirconium phosphate materials with ordered structure were synthesized using hexadecylamine (HDA) as expanding agent, dodecyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride (DDBAC) as template agent and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as silica source. The textural properties of the materials can be effectively controlled by adjusting the dosage of HDA, DDBAC and TEOS. Furthermore, a template-directing self-assembly mechanism was proposed based on the synthesis. In the epoxidation of methyl soyate, the prepared materials showed excellent performance with 95.9 % conversion of double bonds and 84.7 % epoxy selectivity. This result is determined by the large surface area and the ordered interlayer structure. Series silica-pillared zirconium phosphate materials with ordered structure were synthesized. The textural properties of the materials can be effectively controlled by adjusting the dosage of each reaction species. A template-directing self-assembly mechanism was proposed based on the synthesis. The materials show excellent catalytic performance on the epoxidation of methyl soyate.