Highly Active and Recyclable Mesoporous Molecular Sieves CaO(SrO,BaO)/SBA-15 with Base Sites as Heterogeneous Catalysts for Methanolysis of Polycarbonate

Abstract

Mesoporous molecular sieves CaO(BaO, SrO)/SBA-15, which can produce basic sites, were synthesized by impregnation of a certain amount of CaO(BaO, SrO) on the synthesis of SBA-15 support, and used as heterogeneous catalysts for the methanolysis of polycarbonate (PC). The physicochemical properties, textual structures and catalytic performance were then studied in detail. The results showed that CaO/SBA-15 exhibited better catalytic activity than BaO/SBA-15 and SrO/SBA-15, and its catalytic activity was related to the loading amount of CaO. Moreover, the obtained product from the methanolysis of PC was mainly bisphenol A (BPA) with high purity. The influneces on reaction conditions of PC methanolysis catalyzed by 10%CaO/SBA-15 were also investigated. It was indicated that the PC conversion was nearly 100% and the BPA yield was over 96%. The stability of catalyst showed that 10%CaO/SBA-15 catalysts could be recycled and reused with negligible loss in activity over five cycles. In addition, a possible catalysis mechanism for the methanolysis of PC was proposed.