Design of mesostructured H3PW12O40-silica materials with controllable ordered and disordered pore geometries and their application for the synthesis of diphenolic acid

A series of mesostructured H3PW12O40-silica materials were developed by using a single step co-condensation technique in the presence of nonionic oligomeric surfactant, C18H37(OCH2CH2)(10)OH (C18EO10, Brij76). By tuning the composition ratios of the starting precursors (mainly the molar ratios of water to the other materials) and the preparation conditions, the materials exhibited ordered two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal p6mm, three-dimensional (3D) hexagonal P6(3)/mmc, and 3D disordered sponge-like pore geometries, respectively. The materials possessed unique textural properties including very large BET surface area (590-1050 m(2) g(-1)), very high porosity (0.4-1.3 cm(3) g(-1)), and well-distributed pore diameter (3.0-5.4 nm). As a novel type of reusable solid acid catalyst, as-prepared materials were applied for the synthesis of diphenolic acid (DPA) from biomass-derived platform molecule, levulinic acid (LA), under solvent-free condition, and special attention was paid to investigating the influences of the structural orderings, pore geometries, H3PW12O40 loadings, and template removal methods on the reactivity and selectivity of H3PW12O40-silica materials to the target reaction.