Aluminum hydroxide-mediated synthesis of mesoporous metal oxides by a mechanochemical nanocasting strategy

Mesoporous metal oxides (MOs) have attracted significant interest in heterogeneous catalysis due to their wide pore size distribution and high pore volume. Herein, we present a facile mechanochemical nanocasting strategy using aluminum hydroxide as the mesoporous structure-directing agent, which overcomes the drawbacks associated with wet template-assisted methods. In this procedure, by simply grinding a mixture of commercial aluminum hydroxide and MO precursors, a series of mesoporous MOs with high specific surface areas and narrow pore size distributions have been constructed in a short time (e.g., Fe2O3, 280 m(2) g(-1); Co3O4, 155 m(2) g(-1); CeO2, 192 m(2) g(-1); ZrO2, 170 m(2) g(-1); CuOx-CeOy, 177 m(2) g(-1); FeOx-CeOy, 170 m(2) g(-1); CoOx-CuOy-CeOz, 154 m(2) g(-1); CoOx-FeOy-CeOz, 133 m(2) g(-1)). It is expected that this strategy may open up new opportunities for fabricating a number of advanced porous materials with abundant porosity in the near future.