(600cp) The Influence of Surface Roughness in SBA-15 and Zirconium Substitution On Methanol Oxidation

The accurate and precise description of a material’s surface properties is necessary to describe molecular processes in catalysis. SBA-15 is a template-synthesized mesoporous silicate that has found extensive use as a model support for studies in supported catalysis. SBA-15 materials contain both mesopores and micropores. However, the microporosity of these materials can alternatively be understood as a manifestation of the fractal nature of the mesopore surface [1]. Our previous work had shown structure-property relationships between the fractal descriptions of pore structure and catalyst effectiveness in V-SBA-15.

To increase our understanding of how surface properties influence catalysis, zirconium containing SBA-15 will be used as a support for preparing vanadia catalysts. Both supports and catalysts will be characterized using a variety of standard techniques including nitrogen physisorption, Raman spectroscopy, small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS)  and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). These catalysts will be evaluated using a model methanol oxidation. The micropore content of the substituted SBA-15 varies with calcination temperature and its role in the methanol oxidation will be explored.  Results from studying the following variables: amount of zirconium in the SBA-15, vanadium loadings, methanol oxidation conditions and the fractal nature of the support will be reported.

Reference

[1]        Smith, M.A.; Lobo, R.F. Microporous and Mesoporous Materials 2010, 131, 204.