Ti-pillared montmorillonite is a new catalytic material with large surface area, unique pore structure and high stability. It is applied to many industries, especially in petroleum processing, chemical industry and environmental engineering.In this work, a montmorillonite ore from Eastern Hubei province has been beneficiated by sedimentation separation process with sodium pyrophosphate as dispersant, producing an ultra-pure montmorillonite. Then, a Ti-pillared montmorillointe (Ti-PILC) has been synthesized by using the ultra-pure montmorillonite and Ti(n-C4H9O)4 through the sol-gel process. Several parameters in the synthesis such as acetone/water ratio, cross-linking time, solvent and cation exchange volume, etc, have been investigated. The experimental results showed that at Ti/montmorillonite=20 mmol/g, H/Ti=2.0 mol/mol, [HCl]=5 mol/L, Vacetone/Vwater=2:1, 0.7 % solid concentration and the cross-linking time of 3 hours, a Ti-PILC with a large basal spacing, d001=3.74 nm, has been produced. After being sintered at 900℃, the Ti-PILC became a high thermal stability with the basal spacing of 3.33 nm, which was superior in China up-to date.By means of the measurements of XRD, BET meter, FT-IR, TG-DSC and SEM, the characteristics of the Ti-PILC have been revealed and the mechanism by which the Ti-PILC was synthesized has been discussed.
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