Synthesis of titanosilicate ETS-10 in presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide

The titanosilicate ETS-10 has been hydrothermally synthesized at 463 K for 3 days from the gels of molar composition 1.0 Na2O–0.2 TiO2–0.6 KF–1.28 HCl–xC16TMAB–1.49 SiO2–39.5 H2O, where C16TMAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) is shape-directing agent (template surfactant) and x = 0.05, 0.11, 0.20 and 0.30 moles. The effect of templating surfactant micelles on the crystallization and purity of ETS-10, on its crystallization field, the kinetics of crystallization and on the thermal stability of the structure is investigated. All the samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction, SEM, thermal analysis (TGA–DTG–DSC), nitrogen sorption and hpdec MAS 13C-NMR techniques. The characterization results suggested that the nucleation time, crystal growth rate, morphology, the range of pH, the crystallization field and the thermal stability of the final ETS-10 products were dependant on the presence of surfactant C16TMAB as structure template in the alkaline silica–titania cogel. The ETS-10 is essentially microporous with a small mesoporous population.