Acidity of silica-alumina catalysts by amine titration using Hammett indicators and FT-IR study of pyridine adsorption

In this study, characterization and surface acidity of Siral (SiO2-Al2O3) compounds were investigated with Hammett acidity functions, the n-butylamine titration method and FTIR analysis of the spectra of pyridine adsorption. All the samples had an acid strength of H-0 less than or equal to +2.8. The calculated total amount of acid of the samples increased with the increase in SiO2 content up to Siral 40 and then decreased sharply in the case of Siral 80. Maximum amount of acidity was observed in the case of Siral 40 as 1.37mmole/g. No evidence was found for a band at 1540 cm(-1) on Pural indicating that there were no Bronsted sites on the surface strong enough to react with pyridine. As a result, we can say that the Lewis sites predominate in all the silica-aluminas.