New micro- and mesoporous materials based on VOPO4 chemistry

A brief review of porosity in zeolites, pillared layers and the new mesoporous materials serves as an introduction to the present study. A dark green-layered vanadyl phosphate of composition [(VO)(3)(PO4)(3)(H2O)(3)]. 4H(2)O was prepared hydrothermally. It was found to intercalate close to 3 mols of amine per VOPO4 unit. These amine-intercalated phases react with inorganic polymers in alcohol as the solvent under reflux to yield both micro- and mesoporous materials. These reactions exhibit features of both pillaring and template guided reactions. Materials with very narrow pore distributions are obtained by an, as yet, undetermined mechanism. Thermal treatment leads to larger pores with a still narrow pore size distribution. The goal is to prepare catalytically active porous materials with pore diameters in the 10-20 Angstrom range. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.