Mesoporous zirconium phosphate catalyzed reactions: Synthesis of industrially important chemicals in solvent-free conditions

• Published in: Applied catalysis. A, General Vol. 385; no. 1; pp. 22 - 30
• Main Authors: Sinhamahapatra, Apurba, Sutradhar, Narottam, Roy, Biplab, Tarafdar, Abhijit, Bajaj, Hari C., Panda, Asit Baran
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier B.V 15.09.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Activation; Benzylation reaction; Catalysis; Catalysts; Catalytic activity; Chemistry; Colloidal state and disperse state; Exact sciences and technology; General and physical chemistry; Industrial chemicals; Mesoporous; Phosphates; Porosity; Porous materials; Reaction time; Solid acid catalyst; Specific surface; Theory of reactions, general kinetics. Catalysis. Nomenclature, chemical documentation, computer chemistry; Zirconium; Zirconium phosphate; Benzylation reaction; Solid acid catalyst; Zirconium phosphate; Mesoporous; Industrial chemicals; Acidic site; Porous material; Precursor; Solid; Thermal stability; Pore size; Brönsted acid; Synthesis; Basic medium; Carbonates; Structure; Lewis acid; Benzylation; Catalytic reaction; Acidity; Bronsted site; Mesoporosity; Infrared spectrometry; Ammonia; Heterogeneous catalysis; Zirconium; Acids; Pore; Solvent free reaction; Morphology; Distribution; Reaction time; Surface area; Catalyst
• ISSN: 0926-860X; 1873-3875
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apcata.2010.06.016

[Display omitted] ▶ Mesoporous zirconium phosphate with high specific surface area and stability. ▶ Strong and high amount of acid sites are present. ▶ Highly active towards different acid catalyzed reactions. Mesoporous zirconium phosphate (m-ZrP) having high specific surface area and narrow pore size distributions is synthesized in basic medium using zirconium carbonate as source of zirconium. The concentration of phosphate in precursor solutions, as well as the calcination temperature, is found to influence the textural properties and acidity of synthesized m-ZrP significantly. Microscopic analysis indicates the presence of worm like pores with spherical morphology. The porous structure has remarkable thermal stability (up to 800 °C). DRIFT and NH 3-TPD analysis suggest the presence of reasonable amount of Lewis and Brönsted acid sites. High catalytic activity of synthesized m-ZrP is observed towards Friedel–Craft (F.C.) benzylation reaction. The effect of acid strength of catalyst, reaction time, temperature and amount of catalyst towards Friedel–Craft benzylation reaction are also studied. The m-ZrP is highly active towards other acid catalyzed reactions in solvent-free conditions. The catalytic activity of m-ZrP is much higher than that of conventional layered ZrP. The catalysts were separated easily from reaction mixture, regenerated after a simple activation step and reused at least six times without significant loss in catalytic activity.