Synthesis of mesoporous silica-alumina materials via urea-templated sol-gel route and their catalytic performance for THF polymerization

A series of mesoporous silica-alumina materials was successfully synthesized by using urea as a low-cost template via sol-gel routes. The characterization results showed that the employ of urea enhanced the porosity of the silica-alumina materials and made the pore size distributions become narrower. The specific surface area, pore volume and pore diameter of SAU-X firstly increased and then decreased as the urea concentration increased from 0 to 60 wt %, and the maximums were obtained at 40 wt % urea concentration. All samples were tested for the THF polymerization. Among them, SAU-40 exhibited the highest activity and the longest catalyst life due to its superior porosity.