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Influence of alcohol solvents on morphology of hollow silica–alumina composite spheres and their activity for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane

  • Original Paper: Nano-structured materials (particles, fibers, colloids, composites, etc.)
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Abstract

In this study, we reported effect of alcohol solvents on morphology of hollow silica–alumina composite spheres and their activity for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane. Silica–alumina composite shell was coated on polystyrene template particles via sol–gel reaction in various alcohol solvents. The hollow spheres were prepared in methanol, ethanol and 2-propanol for 36, 17 and 8 h, respectively. The results indicate that the order of sol–gel reaction rate was 2-propanol > ethanol > methanol. Amount of hydrogen evolution of the hollow spheres prepared in methanol and ethanol were higher than that of the hollow spheres prepared in 2-propanol. From the results of solid-state 27Al nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, we found that aluminum species of the hollow spheres prepared in methanol and ethanol were highly dispersed in their silica matrix. The results of temperature programed dispersion of ammonia showed that all the hollow spheres have weak and strong Brønsted acid sites. The amount of weak Brønsted acid sites in all the hollow spheres were of same level, while the amount of strong Brønsted acid sites increase with decrease of sol–gel reaction rate. These results indicate that the sol–gel reaction rate influences the dispersion of aluminum species, and highly dispersed aluminum species lead to increase in the amount of Brønsted acid sites.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported by NIMS and University of Tokyo microstructural characterization platform as a program of “Nanotechnology Platform” of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan. We are grateful to Mr. Deguchi and Ms. Wada for using solid-state NMR, and Mr. Ito for using TEM measurement. Additionally, we also thanks Dr. Yoneda for using NH3-TPD measurement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials & Applied Chemistry, College of Science & Engineering, Nihon University, 1-8-14, Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo, 101-8308, Japan

    Naoki Toyama, Tetsuo Umegaki & Yoshiyuki Kojima

  2. National Institute for Materials Science, 3-13, Sakura, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0003, Japan

    Shinobu Ohki, Masataka Tansho & Tadashi Shimizu

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  1. Naoki Toyama
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  2. Shinobu Ohki
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Correspondence to Tetsuo Umegaki.

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Toyama, N., Ohki, S., Tansho, M. et al. Influence of alcohol solvents on morphology of hollow silica–alumina composite spheres and their activity for hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 82, 92–100 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-016-4287-6

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