Titanosilicate zeolite precursors for highly efficient oxidation reactions

Abstract

[EN] Titanosilicate zeolites are catalysts of interest in the field of fine chemicals. However, the generation and accessibility of active sites in titanosilicate materials for catalyzing reactions with large molecules is still a challenge. Herein, we prepared titanosilicate zeolite precursors with open zeolitic structures, tunable pore sizes, and controllable Si/Ti ratios through a hydrothermal crystallization strategy by using quaternary ammonium templates. A series of quaternary ammonium ions are discovered as effective organic templates. The prepared amorphous titanosilicate zeolites with some zeolite framework structural order have extra-large micropores and abundant octahedrally coordinated isolated Ti species, which lead to a superior catalytic performance in the oxidative desulfurization of dibenzothiophene (DBT) and epoxidation of cyclohexene. It is anticipated that the amorphous prezeolitic titanosilicates will benefit the catalytic conversion of bulky molecules in a wide range of reaction processes. ; The authors thank the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant 2016YFB0701100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 21621001, 21920102005 and 21835002), the 111 Project (B17020), the European Union through the European Research Council (grant ERC-AdG-2014-671093, SynCatMatch), and the Spanish Government through "Severo Ochoa" (SEV-2016-0683, MINECO) for supporting this work. The APS was operated for the U.S. DOE Office of Science by the Argonne National Laboratory, and the CLS@APS facilities (Sector 20) were supported by the U.S. DOE under contract no. DEAC02-06CH11357, and the Canadian Light Source and its funding partners. R. Bai acknowledges the China Scholarship Council for the financial support. Jose Gaona Miguelez is also acknowledged for technical help. ; Bai, R.; Navarro Villalba, MT.; Song, Y.; Zhang, T.; Zou, Y.; Feng, Z.; Zhang, P. (2020). Titanosilicate zeolite precursors for highly efficient oxidation reactions. Chemical Science. 11(45):12341-12349. ...