Heterogeneous strong base catalysis in supercritical carbon dioxide by mesoporous alumina and sulfated mesoporous alumina

Abstract

The development of solid strong base catalysts utilizable in green but acidic medium of scCO2 is reviewed. The strong base sites on mesoporous alumina and sulfated mesoporous alumina that had been generated by severe treatment at 773 K under vacuum (10−4 Torr) were not neutralized by the compressed Lewis acidic molecules of CO2, promoting a representative strong base-catalyzed reaction of the Tishchenko reaction as well as a typical base-catalyzed reaction of the Knoevenagel reaction in scCO2. Infrared spectroscopy of the adsorbed pyrrole, temperature-programmed desorption of CO2, and the poisoning by a very weak Bronsted acid of methanol have revealed that the average strengths of the base sites on mesoporous alumina and sulfated mesoporous alumina are weaker than that on conventional γ-alumina like JRC-ALO-4, but that they have a small number of strong base sites which function even in scCO2 medium. It was found that the addition of a slight amount of THF cosolvent into scCO2 remarkably accelerates the Tishchenko reaction over sulfated mesoporous alumina; the reaction rate in the scCO2–THF medium was 1.5-fold and 2-fold faster than those in ordinary organic solvents such as benzene and THF and that in pure scCO2, respectively. The unique structures of mesoporous alumina and sulfated mesoporous alumina have been fully characterized by N2 adsorption–desorption measurements and XRD analyses.