Microporous Crystalline γ-Al2O3 Replicated from Microporous Covalent Triazine Framework and Its Application as Support for Catalytic Hydrolysis of Ammonia Borane

Significant progress has been made on the synthesis and application of mesoporous g-alumina. To date, little attention has been paid to the synthesis of microporous crystalline alumina. Here, fabrication of microporous crystalline g-alumina using a microporous covalent triazine framework (CTF-1) as a template is described. Microporous crystalline g-alumina with a micro-meso binary pore system was replicated by infiltration of aluminum nitrate into the micropores of the CTF-1 template through a NH3/water-vapor-induced internal hydrolysis method, followed by thermal treatment, and subsequent removal of the CTF-1 template with a 30% H2O2 aqueous solution. The obtained crystalline g-alumina material exhibits a large surface area (349 m(2)g(-1)) with micropore distribution centered at about 1.27 nm. Ru supported on microporous gamma-Al2O3 can be employed as catalyst for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane, and it exhibits high catalytic activity and good durability. This finding provides a new benchmark for preparing well-defined crystalline microporous alumina materials by a template method, which can be applied in a wide range of fields.