Hydrotalcite like compounds as tunable surface dispersant precursor to Ce and La active sites

Abstract

The strongest impulse for developing new, more efficient and selective catalyst systems and for the realization of new process technology is strongly related to environmental compatibility The discovery of functional solid materials of high catalytic performance is crucial to most chemical processes. In this context, clay minerals are just a class of inorganic layered compounds, which can be engineered into various functional solid catalysts due to their inherent features in composition and structure. Layered materials, with their structure consisting of stacked sheets, represent an interesting opportunity for developing new materials with a tailored nano-design. Hydrotalcite-like compounds also referred as precursors are anionic clays with the general formula [M(II)1-xM(III)x(OH)2](An-)x/n.mH2O. Their structure is based on brucite-like layers in which a fraction of the divalent metal cations (MII: Mg2+) have been substituted by trivalent cations (MIII: Al3+) resulting in positively charged layers balanced by anions in the interlayer. Calcination of precursors leads to formation of mixed oxides. On the other hand, ceria presents particular chemical features such as its redox properties in the presence of transition metals which makes it very attractive for applications in catalytic formulations in numerous reactions. The main role played by ceria is related to the generation of anionic vacancies and to the participation of reactive oxygen species, which can be tuned in the presence of other elements in the lattice. This work reports the synthesis and characterization of metal mixed oxides obtained from Hydrotalcite-like compounds, where a constant fraction of Al was substituted by La and Ce.