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Title: On the nature of strong acidic Bronsted sites of amorphous silica-aluminas

Journal Article · · J. Catal.; (United States)
OSTI ID:5556504

The problem concerning the nature of Bronsted acidity of amorphous silica-aluminas has been discussed for years but still is not completely solved. Therefore, highly dehydroxylated powdered samples of amorphous silica-alumina M-46 ''Houdry'' with Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ content of 12 wt% were used. The samples were heated under vacuum at 1070 K and pressure of 10/sup -2/ N m/sup -2/ for 2 h. Acidic hydroxyls were regenerated by adsorption of small amounts of H/sub 2/O (D/sub 2/O) at room temperature. Infrared spectra of OH (OD) groups were measured in diffuse scattered light in the range 2000-4000 cm/sup -1/ using a double-beam ratio recording Perkin-Elmer 580B spectrophotometer and special ir cells supplied with CaF/sub 2/ windows. Results show an obvious similarity between acidic OH groups of amorphous silica-alumina and zeolites. Their amount in silica-alumina is however much lower. For M-46 it is of the order of 5 x 10/sup 19/ OH/g or only about 1% of the total amount of surface silanol groups. In conclusion, it should be noted that after adsorption of D/sub 2/O the acidic OH groups also can be detected by ir spectroscopy for samples pretreated at lower temperatures, for instance at 770 K. For these samples, however, the corresponding bands are not so pronounced because the major part of acidic groups likely interacts with neighboring silanol groups via H bonding.

Research Organization:
Academy of Sciences of USSR, Moscow
OSTI ID:
5556504
Journal Information:
J. Catal.; (United States), Vol. 80:2
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English