Remarkable effect of pore size on the catalytic activity of mesoporous silica for the acetalization of cyclohexanone with methanol.
The catalytic activity of mesoporous silica (MCM-41) for the acetalization of cyclohexanone shows a volcano-shaped dependence on the pore diameter. The diameter of the cyclohexanone molecule is ca. 0.75 nm, while its acetalization with methanol was well accelerated on MCM-41 with a pore diameter of approximately 1.9 nm, and smaller or larger pores were not suitable for the catalysis. The catalytic activity was independent of the Al concentration.
Chemical Resources Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8503, Japan. iwamoto@res.titech.ac.jp
Masakazu
M
Iwamoto
Yasuhiro
Y
Tanaka
Naoki
N
Sawamura
Seitaro
S
Namba