Mesoporous hard-templated Me-Co [Me = Cu, Fe] spinel oxides

for water gas shift reaction

S. Varghese, M.G. Cutrufello, E. Rombi, R. Monaci, C. Cannas, I.Ferino[*]

Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università di Cagliari,

Complesso Universitario Monserrato, s.s. 554 Bivio Sestu, 09042 Monserrato (CA), Italy

Supplementary material

Synthesis and characterization of mesostructured silica SBA-15

Mesoporous silica SBA-15 was prepared under hydrothermal conditions. In a typical synthesis, 4 g of Pluronic 123 were added to 120 g of HCl (2M) and 30 g of bidistilled water. After 15 h under stirring at 35 °C, 8.5 g of TEOS were added and the solution was maintained at 35 °C for 24 h under stirring. The resulting gel was then transferred into a stainless-steel autoclave and kept at 100 °C for 24 h under static conditions. The obtained suspension was filtered and the recovered solid was washed with distilled water, dried at 40 °C overnight and finally calcined in air at 550 °C for 5h.

The low angle X-ray diffraction pattern of SBA-15 in Fig. S1 shows three well-resolved peaks which can be indexed as the (1 0 0), (1 1 0), and (2 2 0) reflections typical of the 2-D hexagonal (P6mm) structure.

Fig. S1Low angle X-ray diffraction of SBA-15 silica template

The internal architecture of SBA-15 is clearly visible in the TEM image shown in Fig. S2, which confirm the highly ordered 2-D hexagonal regularity. The ordered arrays of silica channels have a mean diameter of ca. 6-7 nm with a wall thickness of about 3 nm.

Fig. S2TEM image of the SBA-15 silica template

Nitrogen physorption results are reported in Fig. S3, which shows a type IV isotherm with an H1 hysteresis loop at high relative pressures, typical of SBA-15. A surface area of 1003 m2/g and a pore volume of 1.70 cm3/g were calculated from the BET equation. The BJH method was applied to the desorption branch of the isotherm to obtain the pore size distribution curve (Fig. S3, inset) which appears quite narrow and centred at 6.6 nm, in agreement with the TEM results.

Fig. S3 Nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherm and pore size distribution (inset) of SBA15

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