Characterization of Functionalized SiO2 and TiO2 catalysts

Silica and Titania based materials are largely spread due to their economic and ecofriendly features. They are quite stable in a large range of temperature and, on the surface they present various OH groups (related to their surface area) which can be easily chemically modified with different procedures. Depending on the introduced functionalizing groups, it is possible to change the starting physical and chemical properties of the support, achieving different (acidic, hydrophobic, catalytic) characteristics, that allow the materials to be used as catalysts in several contexts. This presentation will focus on synthesis and characterization of different types of functionalized silica or titania catalysts, applied to the biomass exploitation. [1-5] As concern the functionalization of support, both organic frameworks and metals nanoparticles are considered. In order to have a deep comprehension of the structure-activity relation, the surface and structural properties of the catalysts are investigated by several techniques, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM), small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), N2 gas-volumetric adsorption, infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and acid capacity measurements. The chosen characterization techniques are, of course, correlated to the type of functionalization groups.