| Aluminas are utilized in many industrial applications, including as adsorbents, abrasives, ceramics, catalysts, and catalyst supports. Many different phases of aluminas exist, but due to its favorable combination of surface and textural properties, the most important phase is γ-alumina. Surface areas and pore volumes of conventional aluminas are typically less than 250 m 2/g and 0.5 cc/g, respectively. Performance in catalytic applications is limited in part by these properties.; As has been shown in silica chemistry, the use of surfactants to aid in the assembly of a mesostructure leads to improvement in textural properties. Similar advances are anticipated in alumina chemistry, but to date, little progress has been made in this area. Since the disclosure of mesostructured aluminas in 1996, all but a couple of subsequent reports have described compositions of mesostructured aluminas with amorphous walls. This limits their thermal and hydrothermal stability, and thus their potential use in catalytic applications.; The present work describes the synthesis of the first members of a new family of crystalline mesostructured aluminas prepared from the hydrolysis of aluminum sec-butoxide in the presence of either polyethylene oxide (PEO) or amine surfactants as porogens. Members of this family exhibiting the γ-Al 2O3 phase, denoted MSU-γ aluminas, have surface areas, pore sizes, and pore volumes in excess of 400 m2/g, 15 nm, and 1.5 cc/g, respectively. In addition, forms of these aluminas have expressed thermal and hydrothermal stability. Mesostructured boehmites, MSU-B aluminas, have also been obtained using similar synthetic methods. In the synthesis of either alumina, the key step is the formation of an MSU-S/B surfactant-boehmite precursor, which is converted to the desired final product through calcination.; To demonstrate their usefulness, MSU-γ aluminas have been utilized as catalyst supports in dibenzothiophene hydrodesulfurization reactions. Conversions and selectivities superior to that of a commercial catalyst have been achieved. Their success in this capacity can be traced to the stability of the γ-Al 2O3 phase, the ability to effectively disperse the active catalytic component, and increased accessibility to the active sites. |
