Syntheses of Petrochemicals by Using Mesoporous Silica and Functionalized Silica Catalysts

Functional groups attached to the mesoporous silica wall as well as silanol groups thereon act as versatile active catalytic sites. Silanol groups on mesoporous materials can catalyze the Beckmann rearrangement. Sulfonic acid groups can be incorporated by the sulfonation by treatment using concentrated sulphuric acid and have been applied to various acid catalyzed reactions. Amino groups can be also introduced and those introduced via an anionic surfactant templating route have proved to be highly active in base catalyzed reactions such as Knoevenagel and aldol condensations,