Mesostructured Sulfated Zirconia with High Catalytic Activity in n-Butane Isomerization.

A mesostructured sulfated zirconia with a large surface area (189 m2/g) has been successfully prepared using a triblock copolymer as a structure-directing agent. The resulting material was characterized by XRD, TEM, nitrogen adsorption, FTIR and TG/DTA, which suggested that the mesostructured sulfated zirconia was tetragonal crystalline. Catalytic testing showed that the mesostructured sulfated zirconia was much more active than conventional sulfated zirconia for n-butane isomerization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]