Synthesis of hierarchical faujasite nanosheets from corn cob ash-derived nanosilica as efficient catalysts for hydrogenation of lignin-derived alkylphenols

摘要

The development of green synthesis using renewable resources is of crucial importance in various applications, including adsorption and catalysis. In this work, hierarchical faujasite nanosheets have been successfully prepared by a hydrothermal process in the presence of a dimethyloctadecyl-(3-(trime-thoxysilyl)propyl) ammonium chloride (TPOAC) as a hierarchical porogen using an extracted silica derived from renewable resources. The extracted nanosilica was obtained from a corn cob ash by the solgel method without adding any dispersing agent. The TPOAC content and crystallization temperature have a great effect on tuning the morphologies and textural properties of hierarchical faujasite nano sheets. Interestingly, the obtained materials also exhibit outstanding catalytic properties in terms of activity, desired product selectivity, and catalyst lifetime for the hydrogenation of lignin-derived alkyl phenols, which is an important step of bio-oil upgrading. The high yield of 4-propylcyclohexanol over novel designed catalysts is about 2.14 times compared with the conventional faujasite. The first presented approach, thus not only demonstrates a highly efficient way to produce zeolites with hierarchical nanosheet structures via a green synthesis method, but also opens up interesting perspectives for the development of heterogeneous catalysts for bio-oil upgrading applications. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.