Novel Three Dimensional Cubic Fm3m Mesoporous Aluminosilicates with Tailored Cage Type Pore Structure and High Aluminum Content

Abstract Novel three dimensional cubic Fm3m mesoporous aluminosilicates (AlKIT‐5) with very high structural order and unprecedented loadings of Al in the silica framework have been successfully prepared for the first time by using non ionic surfactant as a template in a highly acidic medium. The obtained materials have been unambiguously characterized in detail by several sophisticated techniques such as XRD, N₂ adsorption, HRTEM, HRSEM, EDS, elemental mapping, ²⁷Al MAS NMR, and NH₃‐TPD. We also demonstrate that the nature, and the amount of Al incorporation in the silica framework can easily be controlled by simply varying the n_H2O/n_HCl and the n_Si/n_Al ratios, and the Al sources in the synthesis gel. Among the Al sources examined, the Al isopropoxide (AiPr) is superior over other Al sources. ²⁷Al MAS NMR results reveal that the amount of tetrahedral Al in the framework can be controlled by simply adjusting the n_Si/n_Al ratio in the synthesis gel, which increases with increasing the Al incorporation. One of the interesting findings in the work is the increase of the specific surface area, specific pore volume and the pore diameter of AlKIT‐5 with increasing the Al incorporation in the silica framework (up to n_Si/n_Al ratio of 10) while retaining the well‐ordered three dimensional cage type porous structure, and the mechanism for the unusual behavior has been discussed in detail. Finally, the acidity and the catalytic activity in the acetylation of veratrole of the AlKIT‐5 catalysts have been studied and the results have been compared with the several zeolites catalysts. Among the catalysts examined, AlKIT‐5(10) is found to be superior over the zeolites catalysts such as mordenite, zeolite H‐Y, zeolite H‐β, and ZSM‐5.