Ti containing mesoporous silica submicrometer-sphere, with tunable particle size for styrene oxidation

Ti-containing mesoporous silica materials with size-tunable mesopores and isolated tetrahedrally coordinated Ti species have widely applications in bulk molecular catalysis. Herein, mesoporous titanium silica submicrometer-spheres (Ti-MSSs) with tunable outer particle diameter were synthesized based on developed Stober method using nonionic surfactant P123 as particle dispersing agent at room temperature. P123 molecular assembled structures will interact with silica species through interface hydrogen bond leading to the formation of tunable sized particles. The particle size was controlled ranging from 400 to 80 nm by adjusting the P123 concentration. The influence of Ti-MSSs particle size on the oxidation of styrene with aqueous H2O2 as oxidant was investigated in detail. Ti-MSSs showed better catalytical performance compared to mesoporous titanium silica large particles. Moreover, the catalyst activity increased with decrease in particle size of Ti-MSSs. Nano-sized Ti-MSSs of about 80 nm demonstrated the optimized performance for styrene oxidation with styrene conversion 44.7%, benzaldehyde selectivity 82.2% and styrene oxide 17.7% while the reaction time was 6 h.