A facile route for one-pot synthesis of short-channeled bimetallic Zr–Al–SBA-15

• A facile route for one-pot synthesis of short-channeled bimetallic Zr–Al–SBA-15 has been developed.
• The incorporation of Zr leads to a remarkable decrease in the channel length of Zr–Al–SBA-15.
• Zr–Al–SBA-15 has much shorter (ca. 200–400 nm) and straighter channel as compared with conventional Al–SBA-15.

Short-channeled bimetallic Zr–Al–SBA-15 material with well-ordered mesostructures was prepared through a one-pot hydrothermal synthesis method under mild acidic condition by adding appropriate amounts of Zr(IV) ions to the synthesis system. The physicochemical characteristics of the materials were characterized by pyridine in situ FTIR, XRD, N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm techniques, SEM and TEM. The results indicated that the Zr and Al were successfully incorporated into the mesoporous framework of SBA-15 material, and the modified SBA-15 material still retained both structural and textural properties of SBA-15. More importantly, the Zr–Al–SBA-15 material has shorter and straighter channels as compared with the conventional Al–SBA-15. The average length of the channels of the Zr–Al–SBA-15 is about 200–400 nm.