Synthesis of mesoporous alumina for catalytic applications

The synthesis of mesoporous alumina has a very interesting area of application, particularly as catalyst or catalyst support. This chapter focuses on the individual synthesis routes to produce mesoporous aluminas with large surface area s and narrow pore size distributions. The utilization of various structure -directing agents (cationic, anionic and neutral ) during the preparation of aluminas was studied. The syntheses carried out with aqueous ionic surfactants produced aluminas with poorer textural properties than the aluminas prepared with nonionic methods in alcoholic solutions. It was found that textural properties of the aluminas differ depending on the preparation method. Some catalytic applications of mesoporous aluminas were cited. It was found that the stages of precipitation, aging and elimination of the surfactant, required more detailed experimental information.