Synthesis of Pure Alumina Mesoporous Materials

Alumina mesophases have been synthesized by reacting aluminum alkoxides and carboxylic acids with controlled amounts of water in low-molecular-weight alcoholic solvents. Calcination of these materials yields aluminas that are thermally stable to 1073 K and contain randomly ordered pores. Specific surface areas as high as 710 m²/g and narrow pore size distributions centered at 20 Å that do not contain “zeolitic” micropores are exhibited by the calcined solids.