Synthesis of amorphous mesoporous TiO2-SiO2 and its excellent catalytic performance in oxidative desulfurization

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Amorphous mesoporous TiO2-SiO2 composites have been prepared by introducing n-propyltriethoxysilane (PTES) into the synthesis system of titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1). The hydrolysate of PTES can participate in the condensation between ‘Si(OH)4’ and ‘Ti(OH)4’, and generate the isolated ‘alkyl-rich regions’ and ‘inorganic TiO2-SiO2 regions’. Proper amount of ‘alkyl rich regions’ can highly separate titania–silica species and seriously retard the crystal growth, thereby producing the amorphous mesoporous structure. As the PTES/Si molar ratio is between 0.1 and 0.2, the resulting samples have plenty of three-dimensional connected mesopores, and they display outstanding catalytic performance in the oxidative desulfurization of bulky sulfur compounds.