Mesoporous aluminophosphates and Fe-aluminophosphates with highly thermal stability and large surface area templated from semi-fluorinated surfactant

A series of mesoporous aluminophosphates (MAP) and Fe-aluminophosphates (Fe-MAP) with highly thermal stability and large surface area have been successfully synthesized by the use of semi-fluorinated surfactant, which were characterized by XRD, TEM, N2 adsorption, NMR, UV–Vis, and ESR techniques. These results show these samples are thermally stable up to 600 °C. More importantly, these samples give large surface area (BET, ca. 430–580 m2/g), which has an advantage for the use of catalysts or catalyst supports. In contrast, mesoporous aluminophosphates templated from copolymer surfactants such as F127 show relatively low surface area (<260 m2/g). Furthermore, UV–Vis and ESR spectra suggest that Fe species in Fe-MAP are mainly in tetrahedral coordination. Finally, the tests of hydroxylation of phenol with hydrogen peroxide show that Fe-MAPs are catalytically active.