High purity mesoporous Γ-AL2O3 from kano kaolin in the presence of polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG-6000) surfactant

Mesoporous γ-al2o3 with large surface area and narrow pore size was synthesized from acid-leachates of calcined kaolin in the presence of polyethylene glycol 6000 (peg-6000) surfactant at room temperature. the synthesized alumina was characterized by x-ray diffraction (xrd),nitrogen adsorption-desorption,fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (ftir),field emission scanning electron microscopy (fesem) with energy-dispersive x-ray analysis (edx),and thermogravimetric-derivative thermal analysis (tg-dta). high-purity mesoporous γ-al2o3with large surface area of 365.1 m2/g,narrow pore size distribution centred at 5.3 nm and pore volume of 0.46 cm3/g was obtained at 500 °c. when the calcination temperature has increased to 700 °c,the surface area decreased to 272.9 m2/g. crystallite size calculated using scherer’s equation revealed the average size of 4.33 and 4.12 nm for alumina calcined at 500 and 700 °c,respectively. the excellent pore structural properties (high surface area and large pore volume) of the synthesized mesoporous γ-alumina in the present study will allow for higher loading of active catalytic phases,as such it can be used as catalyst support. © 2017 penerbit utm press. all rights reserved.