Acidity study of Nb-containing MCM-41 mesoporous materials. Comparison with that of Al-MCM-41

The acidity of Nb-MCM-41 molecular sieves as well as their hydrogen forms was studied using FTIR spectroscopy with pyridine and 2,6-dimethylpyridine as probe molecules and in test reactions (isopropanol and cumene decomposition). The number of Lewis acid sites (LAS) and Brønsted acid sites (BAS) was estimated from the intensity of IR bands at 1450 and 1549 cm-1 respectively. The acidity of niobium-containing materials was compared with that of Al related molecular sieves. The parent Al- and Nb-MCM-41 mesoporous materials studied in this work did not show Brønsted acidity which only appeared after ammonium exchange followed by calcination. The number and the strength of BAS was much higher on H,Al-containing material than that on H,Nb-containing molecular sieves. H,Nb-MCM-41 exhibited a higher concentration of LAS than H,Al related material.