Atomizing aluminosilicates!

Solids with a uniform and organized porosity -mesostructured materials- or with a hierarchized porosity offer promising prospects for the catalyst industry, which is keen to develop ever more efficient and environmentally-friendly products.

Alexandra Chaumonnot Catalysis and separation Division alexandra.chaumonnot@ifpen.fr

IFPEN and the Laboratoire de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Paris (Laboratory for Condensed Matter Chemistry) have been working together to address this challenge since 2002. Adopting an original approach, they have focused on a specific technology: atomization or aerosol.

We have been able to use a continuously operating tool to obtain in a single synthesis step:

• mesostructured aluminosilicates with a high aluminum content,
• composite solids composed of zeolite nanocrystal strapped in a mesostructured matrix,
• and micro-, meso- and macroporous alumino-silicates, structured or otherwise.

This technology offers two advantages: first of all, it can be used to create a multitude of solids. Secondly, it appears to be compatible with the challenges of industrial-scale production. In addition, the unusual acidity properties of some of the materials obtained, totally different from those of acidic solids used industrially for catalysis, open up potential new research and development avenues in the fields of innovative materials and catalysis.

This is a particularly promising avenue given the tense energy context in which technological innovation will play a predominant role in meeting our needs.

a) Particle with a hierarchized porosity, mesoporous at the edges, macroporous in the center.
b) Mesostructured particle with cylindrical pores distributed periodically through the matrix.

Publications

• A. Chaumonnot, F. Tihay, A. Coupé, S. Péga, C. Boissière, D. Grosso, C. Sanchez, Oil and Gas Science and Technology-Rev. IFPEN, 64, 6 (2009) 681. DOI: 10.2516/ogst/2009029.
• S. Péga, C. Boissière, D. Groso, T. Azaïs, A. Chaumonnot, C. Sanchez, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 48 (2009) 2784. DOI: 10.1002/anie.200805217.

>> See also IFPEN Publications database