Preparation and Acid Catalytic Activity of TiO2 Grafted Silica MCM-41 with Sulfate Treatment

TiO2 grafted silica MCM-41 catalyst with and without sulfate treatment were prepared. The structural and acid properties of these materials were investigated by XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, element analysis, thermal analysis, Raman and FTIR measurements. Their acid-catalytic activities were evaluated using the cyclization reaction of pseudoionone. It was found that the obtained materials possess well-ordered mesostructure, and the grafted TiO2 components were in highly dispersed amorphous form. T/MCM41 without sulfation contained only Lewis acid sites, while Bronsted and Lewis acidities were remarkably improved for the sulfated materials ST/MCM41 and d-ST/MCM41. T/MCM-41 was not active for the cyclization reaction of pseudoionone, but ST/MCM-41 and d-ST/MCM-41 possessed favorable catalytic activities. The catalytic performance of ST/MCM-41 was comparable with that of the commercial solid acid catalyst of Amberlyst-15, and better than that of d-ST/MCM-41, although the latter underwent a second TiO2 grafting process and accordingly had higher Ti and S content. The specific surface structure of Si-O-Ti-O-S=O in ST/MCM-41 and the bilateral induction effect of Si and S=O on Si-O-Ti bonds were speculated to account for its higher acid catalytic activity.