One-pot hydrothermal synthesis of Al-containing SBA-3 mesoporous materials

•The method of direct AlSBA-3 synthesis is presented.•The number of introduced Al depends on Al source and pH of mixture.•The resulted AlSBA-3 exhibits both Broensted and Lewis acidic sites.

AlSBA-3 mesostructured materials with different Si/Al ratios were directly synthesized for the first time. The influence of the synthesis medium (different pH of synthesis mixture) and aluminium source on the efficiency of aluminium incorporation was studied. The increase in pH of reacting mixture allows to introduce much higher number of Al atoms, but on the other hand it causes worse ordering of the structure. The aluminium isopropoxide used as Al source leads to relatively high Al content in the final materials. The presence of Al in the framework positions is proved by 27Al MAS NMR. The obtained materials show considerable catalytic activity for the acid-catalyzed reactions (dehydration of 2-propanol, cumene cracking).

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