Exploring, Tuning, and Exploiting the Basicity of Hydrotalcites for Applications in Heterogeneous Catalysis

Hydrotalcites offer unique basic properties that make them very attractive for catalytic applications. It is of primary interest to make use of accurate tools for probing the basicity of hydrotalcite-based catalysts for the purpose of I) fundamental understanding of base-catalysed processes with hydrotalcites and 2) optimisation of the catalytic performance achieved in reactions Of industrial interest. Techniques based oil probe mclecules, titration techniques and test reactions along with physicochemical characterisation are overviewed in the first part of this review. The aim is to provide the tools for understanding how series of parameters involved in the preparation of hydrotalcite-based catalytic materials call he employed to control and adapt the basic properties of the catalyst towards the basicity demanded by each target chemical reaction. An overview of recent and significant achievements in that perspective is presented in the second part of the paper.