Direct synthesis of titanium substituted mesostructured materials using non-ionic surfactants and titanocene dichloride

Abstract

Titanium-substituted mesoporous molecular sieves have been successfully synthesized using non-ionic surfactants and titanocene dichloride under strong acidic conditions. Structure-textural parameters of the synthesized materials were characterized by using X-ray diffraction and nitrogen adsorption techniques. The increasing of the gel solution pH allows an enhancement of titanium within the mesostructure without damage of textural properties and presence of extra-framework species. The high accessibility and dispersion of titanium centres has been proved by means of NH3 adsorption and DR UV-Vis spectroscopy, being compared with TS-1 material. The synthesized materials show high activity and selectivity in the selective epoxidation of 1-octene with ethylbenzylhydroperoxide as oxidant. Moreover, silylated samples promoted an increase of epoxide selectivity.