Synthesis of meso-SAPO-37 materials using neutral surfactant

The electrostatic interaction between the inorganic precursor and the organic surfactant plays a major role in the assembly of mesoporous materials; hence, the authors believe that the use of a neutral surfactant against a cationic surfactant might help to produce long-range-ordered mesoporous materials with better thermal stability. The current work focuses on the synthesis of mesoporous silicoaluminophosphate-37 materials using a neutral surfactant (hexadecyl amine) by a two-step procedure. The synthesised materials were characterised by various spectroscopic and analytical techniques, namely Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and nitrogen (N₂) sorption. The mesoporosity of the samples was evident from XRD and nitrogen sorption analysis. FT-IR spectra support the presence of microporous structural building units on the mesoporous surface. The SEM images showed the presence of a flower-like morphology with hexagonal petals. The resulting material showed promising activities for trans alkylation of naphthalene using 1,3-diisopropylbenzene.