Synthesis of well-ordered MCM-41 containing highly-dispersed NiO nanoparticles and efficient catalytic epoxidation of styrene

Abstract

Well-ordered MCM-41 materials with different loadings of NiO were prepared combining hydrothermal method using cetyltrimethylammonia bromide as the structure-directing agent in an ammonia aqueous solution with calcination. A series of characterization of the resulting samples revealed that the materials maintained ordered mesostructure of MCM-41 after loading NiO and NiO nanoparticles were highly dispersed in the mesoporous wall and on the external surface of MCM-41. Characterization results also unveiled that $$\hbox {Ni}^{2+ }$$ prefer to enter the pores that formed by silicone gel during the hydrothermal reaction and incorporated into the pore wall and then formed NiO during the calcination process. And the TEM images indicated that smaller size NiO nanoparticles are easier to be formed on the MCM-41 materials. Catalytic results revealed that NiO should be the catalytic active centers for the oxidation of styrene and Ni-based materials showed the efficient catalytic property. Synopsis Owing to high dispersion of nickel oxide on the MCM-41 support and synergistic effect between NiO nanoparticles and the support, 6Ni-MCM-41 gave higher conversion and selectivity compared to pure NiO nanoparticles.