Facile synthesis and characterization of acid–base bifunctionalized mesoporous silica

A simple acid–base bifunctionalized approach has been developed through grinding the precursors, magnesium and aluminium nitrates, with the as-prepared SBA-15, and then the generation of acid–base active sites and removal of host template were combined into a single step in the subsequent calcination procedure. A series of acid–base bifunctional mesoporous materials MgO–Al2O3–SBA-15 (MA–SBA-15) have been successfully synthesized by means of this approach. X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopes (HRTEMs), N2 adsorption, FT-IR spectra, 27Al and 29Si magic-angle-spinning (MAS) NMR, NH3- and CO2-temperature programmed desorption (TPD), pyridine adsorption were employed to characterize the resultant mesoporous materials. The results indicate that the guests can be well dispersed in the channel of SBA-15, and the resultant materials exhibit excellent acid-basic properties with well mesoporous backbone, which make it possessing high activity for the synthesis of ethyl methyl carbonate, an important asymmetric carbonate ester compound.