Base catalysis on microporous and mesoporous materials: recent progress and perspectives

During the past decade, new classes of porous solid bases such as organic bases grafted onto the walls of ordered mesoporous materials and nitrided zeolites have been studied as catalysts in a wide variety of base-catalyzed reactions. Important examples are the mercaptane oxidation in petroleum refining, well known as sweetening of gasoline and kerosene, carbon-carbon bond forming reactions in fine chemistry such as aldol additions and condensations, and (trans-) esterification reactions interesting for food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The present work gives a survey on these new solid bases, their applications in heterogeneous catalysis and on new spectroscopic techniques allowing a more detailed investigation of base sites and adsorbates on working catalysts. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.