CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Zirconium oxide (zirconia) is an interesting material to be used as catalyst support due to its thermal stability in different atmospheres. The more used methods to obtain zirconia are sol-gel, micellar or mechanochemical synthesis. Zirconia is frequently prepared by micellar method, while the sol-gel method from an alkoxide is less used. Its acid properties can be modified by addition of cationic or anionic substances, as sulfate or tungstate . Keggin heteropolyacids, such as tungstophosphoric acid, though less studied, lead to materials with high acidity. Trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (CF3SO3H) has a highly acidic nature, excellent thermal stability, resistance to reductive and oxidative dissociation, with no generation of fluoride ions, even in the presence of strong nucleophiles. It was used as efficient homogeneous catalyst but has environmental disadvantages because it generates high amount of waste. An interesting alternative is the trifluoromethanesulfonic acid heterogeneization by immobilization on an adequate support in order to contribute with the field of clean processes. There are few works on this subject, though it can be mentioned its immobilization on titania . In the present work, the physicochemical and textural characteristics of catalysts obtained from the impregnation of trifluoromethanesulfonic acid on mesoporous zirconia are studied.