Abstract
The direct incorporation of vanadium into the three-dimensional(3-D) cubic Ia3d mesostructure designated as V-KIT-6 was carried out hydrothernially using a Pluronic P123 and n-butanol as the structure-directing mixture, tetraethy-lorthosilicate(TEOS) as the silica source and NH4VO3 as the vanadium source. The obtained V-KIT-6 showed a very high specific surface area similar to 1,000 m(2)/g with tunable pore diameters in narrow distribution of sizes similar to 6.0 nm. The coordination and nature of V sites in V-KIT-6 are characterized by V-51-spin-echo NMR analysis. The calcined V-KIT-6 materials showed excellent catalytic activity in the direct oxidation of styrene using tert-butyl hydroperoxide(TBHP) as an oxidant.