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

Herein, we prepared a mesoporous tin oxide catalyst (mSnO) activated with phosphate species by the adsorption of phosphate ions from a phosphoric acid solution onto tin oxyhydroxide (Sn(OH)) surface. The phosphate content ranged from 3 to 45 wt%. The nonaqueous titration of -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 mSnO and enabled it to keep its crystalline size at the nanoscale. FTIR analysis indicated the polymerization of the HPO groups into PO , which in turn reacts with SnO to form a SnPO layer, which stabilizes the mesoporous structure of SnO. The acidity measurements showed that the phosphate species are distributed homogeneously over the mSnO surface until surface saturation coverage at 25 wt% PO , 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 PO loading on mSnO until it reached a maximum value of 93.2% for the 25% PO /mSnO catalyst with 100% selectivity and excellent reusability for three consecutive runs with no loss in activity.