Aluminas (Al2O3) are the most important commercial catalyst supports because of their thermal stability and wide range of chemical and catalytic properties. We have developed a generalized method to synthesize aluminum alkoxides to be used as starting materials for the synthesis of high surface area and high pore volume alumina supports. The reaction entails the addition of 1 mole aluminum to an excess amount of alcohol with 0.01 mole mercuric chloride as catalyst and reflux at boiling point of alcohols. Pure solid alkoxides were isolated from solution by distillation, rinsing and filtration process. Yields of 80-95% were achieved for different structures of synthesized alkoxides. The alkoxides were characterized by H-NMR, Al-NMR, FT-IR. The results show that pure aluminum phenoxide (Aph) [Fig. 1] and aluminum hexoxide (AH) [Fig. 2] were synthesized through this process. Afterward, AH and APh were used to make high surface area alumina. Synthesized Aluminas were characterized by BET and XRD as well. 

Generalized synthesis of aluminum hexoxide and aluminum phenoxide

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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