Green synthesis of submicron-sized Ti-rich MWW zeolite powders via a novel mechanochemical dry gel conversion in mixed steam environment

In this research, a novel green mechanochemical dry gel conversion method (MDGC) is reported to obtain submicron-sized Ti-rich MWW zeolite. First, titanium and silica sources were milled under milder conditions in a planetary ball mill to construct the uniform SiO 2 -TiO 2 composite powders with higher Ti contents. Subsequently, submicron-sized Ti-rich MWW zeolite powder was prepared via dry gel conversion (DGC) route using the obtained composite under mixed steam environment consisting of water and piperidine. The physicochemical properties of the SiO 2 -TiO 2 composites before and after calcination and corresponding Ti-MWW-MDGC were investigated by XRD, UV–Vis, FT-IR, SEM, XRF, and N 2 absorption-desorption. Moreover, Ti-MWW (30)-MDGC exhibited a superior catalytic activity during epoxidation with H 2 O 2 compared with the traditional DGC method, and the conversion of 1-hexene increased from 4.2% to 26.3%. The MDGC method is a promising approach for the green production of various zeolites with higher heteroatom contents, such as TS-1, Ti-Beta and Sn-MWW, etc.