Estudo da estrutura e determinação das propriedades físico-químicas de suportes e catalisadores a base de Mg, Al e Zn

Abstract

Smectite clay minerals such as montmorillonites combine a wide range of physicochemical properties that result in strong adsorption capacities. These include high surface area, swelling and hydration properties, as well as strong cation exchange capacities. These characteristics have opened the way to numerous important applications of smectite clays as heterogeneous catalysts, nanocomposite organically materials, rheological control agents, or for water treatment. The layered molecular structure of a smectite sheet consists of an octahedral layer intercalated between two tetrahedral layers, which are primarily made of AlO6 and SiO4 entities, respectively. The molecular structures of clay minerals are particularly difficult to study because of small crystallite sizes, morphological and structural heterogeneity, variable molecular compositions, and the complexity of their layer structure. The theoretical investigation of 23Na NMR spectra of the possible Na+-smectites can gives new insights about the structure of the layers in terms of the isomorphic substitutions. Despite the Na+ ions are in the interlayer space, their positions are sensitive to the isomorphic substitutions in the layers. The structural changes lead to different values of magnetic parameters of the 23Na nucleus (chemical shift, quadrupole coupling constant and asymmetry factor) and the NMR spectra of these materials. The calculated 23Na NMR parameters and simulated spectra suggest that Na+ can be a good probe to investigate the layer structure. The spectra shape for 23Na is more sensitive to isomorphic substitutions in the layer than the other nuclei 27Al and 29Si. A theoretical study of the different degrees of hydration was performed using calculations based on DFT with several exchange-correlation functionals. The weak layer–water molecules interactions suggested the need of dispersion corrections to simulate correctly the basal spacing and the thermodynamic potentials for the dehydration process. The existence of the montmorillonite (Mt) structures with sodium cation in planar geometry, representative of the one-water layer model and in octahedral geometry in a two-water layer model was confirmed. The stages of the dehydration of Na+–Mt were evaluated by thermodynamics calculations leading to a good description of the results from TG/DTG studies. The acid-activated Mt surfaces were simulated and the reactivity of the AlV sites were checked by means of the carbon monoxide adsorption and the data confirm the greater acidity of the sites on the face (110) compared to the face (010). The acid character of the surfaces comes manly from the proton sites located in the hydroxyl groups (HO-Si and HO-AlV). The catalytic activity of the acid activated Mt was also evaluated for esterification reactions and the reaction barriers were obtained for both surfaces. The mixed oxides are considered promising catalysts due to the preparation facility, the high specific area and the pore volume. Moreover, the variety of compositions that can be achieved modifies the distribution and the strength of the sites in the material, and this can significantly alter the catalytic properties of the derived mixed oxides. Since the mixed oxides present low crystallinity and, consequently, their structure was not yet refined and reported in the literature, an alternative for the model design of mixed oxides using computational simulations can be done by the insertion of metallic dopants on MgO(001) surface. Ab initio calculations were performed to study the effect of the Zn2+ dopant on the reactivity and the catalytic activity of the MgO(001) surface toward molecular adsorption and dissociation reactions of the H2O, H2S, CH3CH2OH, CH3CH2SH and CH3SCH3 molecules. The electronic analysis showed that Zn2+ cation increased the reactivity of the surface locally. All molecules dissociate on both surfaces except for water and ethanol which only dissociate on the MgO:Zn(001) surface, confirming the increased reactivity in this surface. The ΔGxT, reaction barriers and the rate constants for the dissociation reactions were also computed.