Synthesis and characterization of mesoporous ZrMCM-48 molecular sieves with good thermal and hydrothermal stability

The hydrothermal synthesis of zirconium incorporated MCM-48 mesoporous materials (ZrMCM-48) was carried out using cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as template and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and sodium fluoride as raw materials. The changes in textural properties were evaluated by means of XRD, TEM, FT-IR, XPS and N2 physical adsorption, respectively. The thermal and hydrothermal stabilities of ZrMCM-48 were also investigated in detail. The results show that the cubic structure ZrMCM-48 with high specific surface area was successfully synthesized. With increase of Zr content incorporated, the mesoporous ordering and surface area of sample decreased. The resulting ZrMCM-48 still maintained a cubic mesoporous framework even after calcination at 800 °C for 4 h or hydrothermal treatment at 100 °C for 24 h. The as synthesized ZrMCM-48 possesses good thermal and hydrothermal stability.