Effect of organic template removal approaches on physiochemical characterization of Ni/Al-SBA-15 and eugenol hydrodeoxygenation

Abstract Template removing approaches can significantly impact the physiochemical properties of mesoporous molecular sieve materials. In order to better understand the relationship between template removing approaches and the properties of Ni/Al-SBA-15, four kinds of template removing approaches were introduced to remove the organic template from Al-SBA-15, respectively. The structural characteristics of these materials were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2-sorption, Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR), infrared spectra of pyridine adsorption (Py-FTIR), magic angle spinning-nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS-NMR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Ni/Al-SBA-15 of which the organic template was removed by two-step calcination method had the maximum specific surface area (619 m2/g). In contrast, Ni/Al-SBA-15 of which the organic template was removed using solvent extraction approaches had the lowest specific surface area (555 m2/g). The mesopore diameter of Ni/Al-SBA-15, using electric heating digestion method to remove the template, was significantly increased and the wall thickness was significantly decreased to 11.62 nm in comparison with the other samples. The selectivity of products during the process of eugenol hydrodeoxygenation was investigated. High hydrocarbons were obtained during catalytic hydrodeoxygenation over Ni/Al-SBA-15 of which the organic template was removed by using solvent extraction approaches. Compared with direct calcination process, two-step calcination was more effective in removing template and the corresponding catalyst was much more suitable for the hydrodeoxygenation process.