A Facile Green Synthetic Route for the Preparation of Highly Active γ-Al(2)O(3) from Aluminum Foil Waste

A novel green preparation route to prepare nano-mesoporous γ-Al(2)O(3) from AlCl(3).6H(2)O derived from aluminum foil waste and designated as ACFL550 is demonstrated, which showed higher surface area, larger pore volume, stronger acidity and higher surface area compared to γ-Al(2)O(3) that is produced from the commercial AlCl(3) precursor, AC550. The produced crystalline AlCl(3).6H(2)O and Al(NO(3))(3).9H(2)O in the first stage of the preparation method were characterized by single-crystal XRD, giving two crystal structures, a trigonal (R-3c) and monoclinic (P2(1)/c) structure, respectively. EDX analysis showed that ACFL550 had half the chlorine content (Cl%) relative to AC550, which makes ACFL550 a promising catalyst in acid-catalysed reactions. Pure and modified ACFL550 and AC550 were applied in acid-catalysed reactions, the dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether and the total methane oxidation reactions, respectively. It was found that ACFL550 showed higher catalytic activity than AC550. This work opens doors for the preparation of highly active and well-structured nano-mesoporous alumina catalysts/supports from aluminum foil waste and demonstrates its application in acid-catalysed reactions.