Synthesis of Al2O3 with tunable pore size for efficient formaldehyde oxidation degradation performance

Alumina aerogel is of great interest for many potential applications because of high surface areas, intrinsic acid, and excellent mechanical properties. Different particle and pore size distribution can show superior performance in some applications, and therefore, the realization of the regulation of alumina particle and pore size has important industrialization significance. Herein, we demonstrate a simple method to prepare alumina aerogels with high surface areas and tunable pore size using sol–gel method with adding polyethylene glycol (PEG). And PEG is used as not only complexing agent to change the size of alumina aerogel particles and enhance the three-dimensional interconnected network structure, but also phase separation agent to promote the formation of macroporous. By changing the molecular mass of PEG and the amount of PEG of the same molecular mass, tunable pore size can be easily achieved. Owing to their high surface area and the three-dimensional network structure for promoting the transport of material into mesoporous where reactions take place, Al2O3 with centered pore size distribution was demonstrated to have excellent catalytic performance. In particular, the prepared Al2O3 adding 0.03 molar ratio of PEG-8000 exhibits the excellent catalytic activity for formaldehyde.