Facile Synthesis of Super-Microporous Titania–Alumina with Tailored Framework Properties

Super-microporous material (pore size 1–2 nm) can bridge the pore size gap between the zeolites (<1 nm) and the mesoporous oxides (>2 nm). A series of super-microporous titania–alumina materials has been successfully prepared via a facile one-pot evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) strategy by different solvents using fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether (AEO-7) as the template. Moreover, no extra acid or base is added in our synthesis process. When titanium isopropylate is used as the titanium source, these materials exhibit high BET surface areas (from 275 to 396 m2/g) and pore volumes (from 0.14 to 0.18 cm3/g). The sample prepared using methanol as the solvent shows the largest Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area of 396 m2/g. When tetrabutyl titanate is used as the titanium source, these materials exhibit high BET surface areas (from 282 to 396 m2/g) and pore volumes (from 0.13 to 0.18 cm3/g). The sample prepared using ethanol as the solvent shows the largest BET surface area of 396 m2/g.Keywords:super-microporous alumina–titania;different solvents;fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether;high BET surface areas