Synthesis of highly regular mesoporous Al-MCM-41 from metakaolin

Mesoporous molecular sieve Al-MCM-41 with Si/Al ratio = 5, was in situ synthesized under hydrothermal condition using tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and metakaolin as silica and aluminum sources and cetyl trimethylammonium bromide as structure directing agent. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), solid-state magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), N2 isothermal adsorption–desorption, SEM and TEM are used to characterize the samples. Metakaolin used as source of aluminum and silicon allowed the formation of well-ordered Al-MCM-41 mesoporous materials. Thus, inexpensive metakaolin is probably a better Al and Si source for MCM-41 samples with low Si/Al ratios than other aluminum sources.