Abstract
A layered titanate with a lepidocrocite-type structure has been pillared with Al-13 Keggin ions to prepare a porous and high-surface-area material. Pillaring was achieved by ion exchange of hexylammonium (HA-Ti) or tetrabuthylammonium (TBA-Ti) intercalated titanates with Keggin Al-13 complex. The thermal stability of the Al-13 intercalates depended on the amount of aluminum incorporated. The surface area and porosity can be tailored by controlling the amount of aluminum uptake and by the nature of base used to prepare the aluminium pillaring solution. In addition, the material derived from HA-Ti exhibited a sharp pore size distribution with an average diameter of 2 nm, while the pillared product obtained from TBA-Ti showed mostly a broad mesoporous distribution with an average pore diameter of 4 nm.