Inclusion of size controlled gallium oxide nanoparticles into highly ordered 3D mesoporous silica with tunable pore diameters and their unusual catalytic performance

H. Oveisi; C. Anand; A. Mano; Salem S. Al-Deyab; P. Kalita; A. Beitollahi; A. Vinu

doi:10.1039/C0JM02006K

Inclusion of size controlled gallium oxidenanoparticles into highly ordered 3D mesoporous silica with tunable pore diameters and their unusual catalytic performance†

H. Oveisi,^ab C. Anand,^ac A. Mano,^a Salem S. Al-Deyab,^d P. Kalita,^a A. Beitollahi^b and A. Vinu*^a

* Corresponding authors

^a International Center for Nanoarchitectonics, World Premier International Research Center, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Japan
E-mail: vinu.ajayan@nims.go.jp
Fax: (+81)29-860-4563

^b Iran University of Science and Technology, School of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Narmak, Tehran, Iran

^c Department of Chemistry, Anna University, Chennai, India

^d Department of Chemistry, Petrochemicals Research Chair, Faculty of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Here we demonstrate for the first time a novel nanosieve approach for tuning the size, shape, dispersion and the quantity of the gallium oxide nanoparticles inside a mesoporous silica support with a three dimensional porous structure, high surface area, and large pore volume (KIT-6). It was found that the size and shape of the gallium oxide nanoparticles in the pore channels of the KIT-6 can be controlled by simply tuning the pore diameter of the support. The obtained gallium oxide/KIT-6 nanocomposites with different gallium oxide contents have been characterized by several characterization techniques such as powder XRD, SAXS, nitrogen adsorption, UV-Vis, FT-IR, HRSEM and HRTEM. XRD, HRTEM and nitrogen adsorption results reveal that the mesostructural order of the KIT-6 materials was not affected even after the encapsulation of ca. 30 wt% gallium oxide nanoparticles. UV-Vis results reveal that bandgap of the materials can be controlled by simply changing the concentration of the gallium oxide or varying the pore diameter of the support. The above catalytic materials have been also successfully employed for the benzylation of benzene and other aromatic compounds. The role of the pore diameter of the support, the loading of the metal oxide nanoparticles and other reaction parameters affecting the activity of the catalysts has been clearly demonstrated. It has been found that gallium oxide supported KIT-6 materials are highly stable and active, and show superior performance over other metal substituted mesoporous and zeolite materials with a high substrate conversion and a high product selectivity in the alkylation of benzene under the optimized reaction conditions.

Journal of Materials Chemistry

Inclusion of size controlled gallium oxidenanoparticles into highly ordered 3D mesoporous silica with tunable pore diameters and their unusual catalytic performance†

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Inclusion of size controlled gallium oxide nanoparticles into highly ordered 3D mesoporous silica with tunable pore diameters and their unusual catalytic performance

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