Preparation of MgO catalytic support in shaped mesoporous high surface area form

Abstract Shaped MgO support of high surface area (307–397 m 2 g −1 ), mesoporous texture and good hardness was prepared by hydration/calcination of commercial, low surface area MgO. For MgO(w), the paste MgO/H 2 O was kneaded, extruded, dried at room temperature and calcined in a fixed bed reactor at high space velocity of air flow. The samples MgO(m) and MgO(et) were prepared by the new simplified sol–gel method: MgO(w) was treated with methanol/water and ethanol/water mixture, respectively, and calcined. Texture of our MgO was evaluated by N 2 adsorption and compared with our data for commercial Al 2 O 3 supports and literature data for MgO prepared by the original sol–gel method. Al 2 O 3 exhibited a narrow distribution of pore diameters ( d p ) with the maximum at 6–11 nm and the small amount of pores with d p above 20 nm. Our MgO(w) exhibited a broader distribution with an important amount of pores with d p above 20 nm. Our MgO(m) and MgO(et) exhibited a broader N 2 adsorption hysteresis loop than MgO(w); their pores distribution became similar to that of Al 2 O 3 . N 2 adsorption isotherms for the original sol–gel MgO (350–400 m 2 g −1 ) published in literature show different features as compared with our MgO and Al 2 O 3 . Our MgO exhibited a similar XRD peaks broadening as described in literature for the original sol–gel MgO, but somewhat different ratio of the heights of XRD peaks. The weight of our MgO increased by about 40% at ambient air, indicating deep hydration of the sample.