UTL titanosilicate: An extra-large pore epoxidation catalyst with tunable textural properties

The UTL titanosilicate was prepared together with related lamellar Ti-IPC-1PISi material and zeolites Ti-IPC-2 (OKO) and Ti-IPC-4 (PCR) via top-down synthesis. The titanium can be incorporated to the UTL framework by conventional hydrothermal synthesis and it does not affect the so-called ADOR chemistry of the UTL material. Silica-titania pillaring concept was successfully applied providing very active Ti-IPC-1PITi catalyst for bulky molecules epoxidation with hydrogen peroxide. The textural properties of catalysts prepared can be tuned widely keeping the same crystalline titanosilicate active phase. All the materials were characterised by XRD, nitrogen sorption measurement, SEM, and DR-IJV/vis spectroscopy. Ti-IPC-1PITi was the most active catalyst in cyclooctene, norbornene, and linalool epoxidation due to the lowest diffusion constraints and sufficient titanium content. Ti-UTL showed activity similar to Ti-BEA in epoxidation of cyclooctene and it provided different products than other titanosilicates in oxidation of linalool with hydrogen peroxide. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.