Abstract
The grafting and sulfation of zirconia conformal monolayers on SBA-15 to create mesoporous catalysts of tunable solid acid/base character is reported. Conformal zirconia and sulfated zirconia (SZ) materials exhibit both Brönsted and Lewis acidity, with the Brönsted/Lewis acid ratio increasing with film thickness and sulfate content. Grafted zirconia films also exhibit amphoteric character, whose Brönsted/Lewis acid site ratio increases with sulfate loading at the expense of base sites. Bilayer ZrO2/SBA-15 affords an ordered mesoporous material with a high acid site loading upon sulfation and excellent hydrothermal stability. Catalytic performance of SZ/SBA-15 was explored in the aqueous phase conversion of glucose to 5-HMF, delivering a 3-fold enhancement in 5-HMF productivity over nonporous SZ counterparts. The coexistence of accessible solid basic/Lewis acid and Brönsted acid sites in grafted SZ/SBA-15 promotes the respective isomerization of glucose to fructose and dehydration of reactively formed fructose to the desired 5-HMF platform chemical.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 4345-4352 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | ACS Catalysis |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 17 Jun 2015 |
Bibliographical note
This is an open access article published under an ACS AuthorChoice License, which permits copying and redistribution of the article or any adaptations for non-commercial purposes.Funding: European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) Grant Agreement No. 604307; EPSRC (EP/K014676/1; EP/G007594/4); Royal Society (IF100206); Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación of Spain (CTQ2011-28216); and Regional Government of Madrid (S2013-MAE-288)
Supporting information avaialble online.
Keywords
- SBA-15
- solid base
- hydrothermal stability
- 5-HMF
- solid acid
- sulfated zirconia