Abstract: Iron-incorporated mesoporous silica material Fe-MSU-1 was successfully synthesized using lauryl alcohol-polyoxyethylene (23) ether as the templating agent under the neutral pH condition. The sample was characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible absorption spectroscopy, electron spin resonance, transmission electron microscopy, N2 adsorption, and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy. Its catalytic performance for hydroxylation of phenol was studied. The effects of catalyst concentration, solvents, phenol/H2O2 molar ratio, reaction temperature, and reaction time on the hydroxylation of phenol over the Fe-MSU-1 catalyst were examined. The results showed that Fe3+ ions were successfully incorporated into the framework of MSU-1, and the Fe-MSU-1 material had a uniform worm-like mesoporous structure with about 2.9 nm pore diameter. After calcination, Fe3+ ions were mainly present in tetrahedral coordination, and no extraframework Fe2O3 was formed. Under the conditions of water solvent, n(phenol)/n(H2O2)=3, reaction temperature 353 K, and reaction time 7 h, the conversions of phenol and H2O2 and the selectivity for dihydroxybenzene reached 20.4%, 96.9%, and 99.6%, respectively.

Key words: iron, MSU-1 mesoporous molecular sieve, phenol, hydroxylation