Nano-sized mesoporous phosphated tin oxide as an efficient solid acid catalyst.

Herein, we prepared a mesoporous tin oxide catalyst (mSnO2) activated with phosphate species by the adsorption of phosphate ions from a phosphoric acid solution onto tin oxyhydroxide (Sn(OH)4) surface. The phosphate content ranged from 3 to 45 wt%. The nonaqueous titration of n-butylamine in acetonitrile was used to determine the total surface acidity level. FTIR of chemically adsorbed pyridine was used to differentiate between the Lewis and Brönsted acid sites. Thermal and X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the addition of phosphate groups stabilized the mesostructure of mSnO2 and enabled it to keep its crystalline size at the nanoscale. FTIR analysis indicated the polymerization of the HPO4 2- groups into P2O7 4-, which in turn reacts with SnO2 to form a SnP2O7 layer, which stabilizes the mesoporous structure of SnO2. The acidity measurements showed that the phosphate species are distributed homogeneously over the mSnO2 surface until surface saturation coverage at 25 wt% PO4 3-, at which point the acid strength and surface acidity level are maximized. The catalytic activity was tested for the synthesis of hydroquinone diacetate, where it was found that the % yield of hydroquinone diacetate compound increased gradually with the increase in PO4 3- loading on mSnO2 until it reached a maximum value of 93.2% for the 25% PO4 3-/mSnO2 catalyst with 100% selectivity and excellent reusability for three consecutive runs with no loss in activity.