Facile H2O2 Hydrothermal Synthesis of Bimodal Mesoporous Silica MCM-48 Spheres

The ordered bimodal mesoporous silica MCM-48 spheres were facile synthesized by mild- temperature post-synthesis H2O2 hydrothermal treatment of as-synthesized MCM-48. The results showed that H2O2 is indispensable for simultaneously removing organic templates and forming ordered bimodal mesoporous silica MCM-48 spheres. The bimodal mesoporous MCM-48 was characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron micrographs, FT-IR, and N2 adsorption-desorption, and a possible mechanism was proposed for the formation of bimodal mesoporous MCM-48.

Synthesis of Bimodal Mesoporous TiO_(2)-PTA/BMMS and Its Enhanced Performance in the Photocatalytic Oxidative Desulfurization

With the bimodal mesoporous silica(BMMS)acting as the support and the composite of TiO2 with phosphotungstic acid(PTA)functioning as the active constituent,TiO_(2)-PTA/BMMS was synthesized by the two-step impregnation route.This catalyst was applied in the photocatalytic oxidative desulfurization(PODS)process,with dibenzothiophene serving as the model sulfur compound.PODS proceeds in one pot,in which H_(2)O_(2) acts as the oxidant and methanol plays the role of the solvent.TiO_(2)-PTA/BMMS was characterized by XRD,N_(2) adsorption and desorption,XRF,FTIR,UV-vis,SEM,EDS and TEM techniques.It showed that the introduction of PTA contributes higher order,higher surface area and pore volume to the bimodal mesoporous support.With TiO_(2)-PTA/BMMS used as the catalyst under the UV irradiation,the desulfurization rate can reach 99.6%.This result is obviously higher than that achieved by TiO_(2)/BMMS.The catalyst also has no significant drop in catalytic activity after eight runs of reusing.In such catalytic system,the synergistic effects of this photocatalytic oxidation and the extraction with the methanol serving as the solvent played an indispensable role.