Synthesis of mesoporous Al-MCM-41 materials using metakaolin as aluminum source

A novel synthesis route for the preparation of Al-MCM-41 mesoporous materials has been developed using water glass and metakaolin as silica and aluminum sources and surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as structure template. The Al-MCM-41 samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and N2 isothermal adsorption-desorption measurement. The experimental results reveal that metakaolin used as aluminum source can allow the formation of well-ordered Al-MCM-41 mesoporous materials with high pore volume (ca.0.78 cm3/g), high specific surface area (ca.877 m2/g), thick channel walls (ca.1.71 nm) and uniform mesoporous diameter (ca. 2.76 nm).