The effect of ageing step elimination on the memory effect presented by Mg0.75Al0.25 hydrotalcites (HT) and their catalytic activity for cyanoethylation reaction

The absence of ageing step in the coprecipitation method leads to modification of textural and structural properties of Mg0.75Al0.25 hydrotalcites which are reflected in the memory effect and in the catalytic activity of these samples for cyanoethylation reaction between ethanol and acrylonitrile where the beta-ethoxypropionitrile is the prevailing reaction product. The solids were characterised by XRD, DRIFT, TEM and base sites determination by adsorption of molecules with different pK(a) aiming to establish a correlation between structural characteristics and the catalytic activity. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.