Synthesis and characterization of manganese-modified MCM-41

Manganese-modified mesoporous MCM-41 molecular sieves were synthesized at the absence of alkaline metal ions under mild alkaline condition using cetylpyridinium bromide surfactant as a template, and characterized with X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption, transmission electron microscopy, electron spin resonance (ESR), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies. The synthesized MnMCM-41 has a high pore volume of 1.30 cm3 g−1 with a corresponding surface area of 1510 m2 g−1. The ESR and 29Si MAS NMR spectra revealed the presence of framework manganese ions in either the as-synthesized or calcined forms.