Ordered Mesoporous Materials with Improved Stability and Catalytic Activity

Microporous crystals of zeolites such as Y, Beta, and ZSM-5 are widely used commercial catalysts, but their applications are strongly limited by their small pore sizes. Recent progress in solving this is used to ordered mesoporous materials such as MCM-41, HMS, and SBA-15. These mesoporous materials have pore diameters of 2.0–30 nm and exhibit good catalytic properties for the catalytic conversion of bulky reactants. However, when compared with microporous crystals of zeolites, the catalytic activity and hydrothermal stability are relatively low, which severely hinders their practical applications in industrial catalytic reactions such as petroleum cracking. The relatively low catalytic activity and hydrothermal stability can be attributed to the amorphous nature of the mesoporous walls. In this account, we systemically review the routes for improving catalytic activity and hydrothermal stability of mesoporous materials, which include (1) acidic sulfated zirconia supported in mesoporous materials; (2) strongly acidic and thermally stable mesostructured sulfated zirconia with tetragonal crystalline phase; (3) strongly acidic and hydrothermally stable mesoporous aluminosilicates synthesized in alkaline media; (4) strongly acidic and hydrothermally stable mesoporous aluminosilicates synthesized in strongly acidic media; (5) hydrothermally stable mesoporous titanosilicates with catalytically active titanium species in oxidations; (6) high-temperature generalized synthesis of ultrastable ordered mesoporous silica-based materials by using fluorocarbonhydrocarbon surfactant mixtures.