Selective Carbon Deposition on γ-Alumina Acid Sites: toward the Design of Catalyst Supports with Improved Hydrothermal Stability in Aqueous Media.

γ-Alumina, a widely used industrial catalyst support, undergoes irreversible transformation into various aluminum hydroxides under hydrothermal (HT) conditions, resulting in strong modification of its intrinsic properties. Most of the strategies that have been proposed to prevent or at least minimize its transformation into oxy-hydroxides consist in covering the alumina surface with a hydrophobic carbon layer, making it less sensitive to modifications induced by water. However, such methods necessitate high carbon contents, which significantly modifies structural and chemical properties of alumina. Here, we propose a new method based on a series of adsorption/pyrolysis cycles using sorbitol molecules previously adsorbed on specific hydration sites of the (110) faces of γ-alumina crystals. These sites, which are responsible for the dissolution of γ-alumina crystals in water, are thus selectively protected by carbon clusters, with the rest of the surface being totally exposed and accessible to adsorbates. Under HT conditions (10 h in water at 200 °C), the formation of hydroxides is almost totally suppressed by covering less than 25% of the surface with only 7 wt % carbon, which is far below the amount necessary to achieve similar results with more conventional carbon deposition methods.