title: Facile synthesis of highly stable and well-dispersed mesoporous ZrO(2)/carbon composites with high performance in oxidative dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene.
abstract: Highly ordered mesoporous ZrO(2)/carbon (FDU-15) composites have been synthesized via a facile evaporation induced triconstituent co-assembly (EISA) approach by using Pluronic F127 as a template and zirconium oxychloride octahydrate and resol as Zr and carbon sources. The synthesized mesoporous composites exhibit a highly ordered two-dimensional (2-D) hexagonal mesostructure with relatively high specific surface areas (up to 947 m(2) g(-1)), pore sizes around 3.8 nm and high pore volumes (up to 0.71 cm(3) g(-1)). The results clearly show that the crystalline zirconia nanoparticles (ca. 1.9-3.9 nm) are well-dispersed in amorphous matrices of the ordered mesoporous carbon FDU-15 materials, which construct the nanocomposites. The ordered mesostructures of the obtained ZrO(2)/FDU-15 composites can be well-retained even at the high pyrolysis temperature (up to 900 degrees C), suggesting a high thermal stability. The zirconia content of the ZrO(2)/FDU-15 composites can be tunable in a wide range (up to 47%). Moreover, the resultant mesoporous ZrO(2)/FDU-15 composites exhibit high catalytic activity in oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of ethylbenzene (EB) to styrene (ST), with high ethylbenzene conversion (59.6%) and styrene selectivity (90.4%), which is mainly attributed to the synergistic catalytic effect between the oxygen-containing groups located on the carbon pore walls and weakly basic sites of the nanocrystalline ZrO(2). Furthermore, the high specific surface areas and opening pore channels are also responsible for their high catalytic activity. Therefore, it is a very promising catalyst material in styrene production on an industrial scale.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Zhangxiong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Qingling
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Dongyuan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhao