Synthesis of novel mesoporous sulfated zirconia nanosheets derived from Zr-based Metal-Organic Frameworks

Flower-like mesoporous sulfated zirconia nanosheets (SZN) were developed by thermal decomposition of in-situ sulfated Zr-MOFs for the first time. The sulfated Zr-MOFs act as both a morphological template and zirconium and sulfate sources. The amounts of SO42- in the synthesis system of UiO-66 greatly affected the morphology of sulfated Zr-MOFs via coordination modulation method. The flower-like sulfated Zr-MOFs nanosheets were obtained as the S/Zr ratio increased to 0.5. The calcination temperature has a great influence on the structural properties and catalytic performances of sulfated zirconia nanosheets other than morphology. Sulfated zirconia nanosheets (SZN-500) obtained by calcination at 500 oC had a large surface area (186.1 m2·g-1) and strong bonding between sulfates and zirconia atoms and exhibited a good catalytic activity and reusability for transesterification of tributyrin with methanol. This viable synthetic strategy can offer an alternative way to prepare functionalized metallic oxides with specific morphology.