Solid acid catalysts from clays: preparation of mesoporous catalysts by chemical activation of metakaolin under acid conditions.

Natural kaolin was treated at 850 or 950 degrees C in air flow to give respectively the metakaolin samples MK8 and MK9. The obtained materials were successively treated at 90 degrees C with a 1 M solution of H(2)SO(4), for various time lengths. The acid treatment of MK8 was found to give a high surface area microporous material with good catalytic properties related to the high density of acid sites, while MK9 gave an ordered mesoporous material with a low density of acid sites. The materials were characterized by several techniques, X-ray powder diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, N(2) physisorption, scanning electron microscopy, and temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia. The 1-butene isomerization was used as test reaction to evaluate the acidity of the samples.

One-step incorporation of Pd-Zn catalytic sites into organized mesoporous alumina for use in the oxidative steam reforming of methanol.

In this paper we report the preparation of an organized mesoporous Pd-Zn/alumina system, by a new surfactant-assisted single-step sol-gel synthesis, performed in alcohol, using stearic acid as a chemical template, aluminum sec-butoxide as Al source and metal stearates both as Pd-Zn sources and as structural directing agents. The prepared materials have been characterized using a variety of techniques such as thermogravimetric analysis, atomic absorption spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction and N2 adsorption-desorption, and preliminarily tested in the oxidative steam reforming of methanol (OSRM) in the temperature range 100-400 degrees C.

A multinuclear NMR study of [Pt0(PPh3)2(alkene)] compounds containing asymmetric olefins.

The 1H, 13C, 31P, and 195Pt NMR spectra of [Pt0(PPh3)2(eta-ABC(1) = C(2)XY)] compounds (ABC(1)= C(2)XY (1) A = B = X = Y = H; (3) A = B = X = H, Y = CN; (4) A = H, B = p-NO2-Ph, X = COOCH3, Y = CN; (5) A = H, B = Ph, X = COOCH3, Y = CN; (6) A = H, B = Ph, X = Y = CN; (7) A = H, B = OEt, X = Y = CN), where X and Y are electronacceptor substituents, and the 1H spectrum of [Pt0(PPh3)2(eta2-C60)] (2) are reported together with extended analyses and assignments, based also on the ring current effect of the olefin phenyl in (4-6). Deviations from first order in the 13C spectra allowed the determination of the relative signs of the coupling constants J(P(1), C) and J(P(2), C) of the alkene and of the triphenylphosphine carbons. Best fit simulation of the phosphine C ipso spectrum provided also the 13C isotopic shift on phosphorus for (1). These compounds are characterised by strong differences between the two platinum-phosphorus coupling constants in the case of asymmetric olefins (3-7). The chemical shifts of alkene C(1) and C(2) indicate notable polarisation of the olefin after complexation, while the 1J(Pt, C(1)) and 1J(Pt, C(2)) values are in agreement with a stronger interaction of Pt with C(1) than with C(2). These findings together with the trend of 195Pt chemical shifts confirm the important role played by back-donation in the bonding of platinum(0)-olefin compounds.