Role of Amine Functionality for CO2 Chemisorption on Silica.

The mechanism of CO2 adsorption on primary, secondary, and bibasic aminosilanes synthetically functionalized in porous SiO2 was qualitatively and quantitatively investigated by a combination of IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetry, and quantum mechanical modeling. The mode of CO2 adsorption depends particularly on the nature of the amine group and the spacing between the aminosilanes. Primary amines bonded CO2 preferentially through the formation of intermolecular ammonium carbamates, whereas CO2 was predominantly stabilized as carbamic acid, when interacting with secondary amines.

Stability of amorphous silica-alumina in hot liquid water.

Herein, the hydrothermal stability of amorphous silica-alumina (ASA) is investigated under conditions relevant for the catalytic conversion of biomass, namely in liquid water at 200 °C. The hydrothermal stability of ASA is much higher than that of pure silica or alumina. Interestingly, the synthetic procedure used plays a major role in its resultant stability: ASA prepared by cogelation (CG) lost its microporous structure, owing to hydrolysis of the siloxane bonds, but the resulting mesoporous material still had a considerable surface area.