Photometathesis activity and thermal stability of two types of mesoporous silica materials, FSM-16 and MCM-41

The metathesis reaction of propene under photoirradiation was performed over two types of mesoporous silica materials, FSM-16 and MCM-41, and amorphous silica evacuated at high temperature. The activity increased with increasing evacuation temperature, and moreover, prehydration treatment before evacuation influenced the activity. The effect of these pretreatment conditions, however, differed from sample to sample. FSM-16 and MCM-41, exhibited activity after evacuation at considerably lower temperature than amorphous silica. Prehydration enhanced the activity of FSM-16 and amorphous silica, but suppressed that of MCM-41. It was also observed that the stability of FSM-16 is higher than MCM-41 under pretreatment conditions. From these results, the specific features of mesoporous silica materials and the difference between FSM-16 and MCM-41 were discussed.