Ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol, and 1-butanol were quantitatively dehydrated to the corresponding olefins on mesoporous silica MCM-41 catalyst. The reaction rates were high and no deactivation was observed for 50 h. Two reaction routes were suggested: the intermolecular dehydration of alcohol and subsequent decomposition of ether and the direct dehydration of alcohol.Utilization of bioethanol (bEtOH) as alternative to or as an additive of automobile fuel has rapidly expanded all over the world. This is of course a way to use renewable resources and suppress carbon dioxide emission, while another challenge is the conversion of bEtOH to various olefins and their use for production of chemicals and polymers.1 The latter would be very significant to fix carbon dioxide for the long-term period. Many efforts have, therefore, been devoted to development of selective conversion systems of bEtOH to ethene (C2 = ). It is widely known that the dehydration of alcohols is well catalyzed on various types of acids including modified aluminas, 2 supported heteropolyacids, 3 zeolites, 48 mesoporous materials, 9 and others, 10 but the activity and selectivity reported so far have been insufficient. For example, the reaction rates and the selectivity of C2 = on proton-or metal-modified zeolites should be improved, the selectivity is often restricted to ca. 96% due to strong acidic sites which cause oligomerization, polymerization, and fission of the produced lower olefins. 5,6 The various reactions in the zeolite pores finally result in coke formation and short lifetime.
57Niobium silicate 8 or silicotungstic acid supported on mesoporous silica 3 have been reported to show good selectivity for C2 = formation, but the reaction rates are not high due to the low surface areas. In addition, the low stability of loaded active components under high partial pressure of water would be a disadvantage for practical use.The novel acidic properties of mesoporous silica material, MCM-41 (M41), have been reported from the present 11,12 and other groups. 13 The acidity is not strong but unique to promote various selective catalyses. Our efforts have, therefore, been devoted to revealing the catalytic activity of M41 for the dehydration of EtOH, 1-and 2-propanol (PrOH), and 1-butanol (BuOH) to C2 = , propene (C3 = ), and butenes (C4 = ). We found the fast, quantitative, and stable catalyst can solve the above problems. The catalytic dehydration of alcohols is well known to be an easy heterogeneous catalytic reaction, but quantitative progress without deactivation is still necessary.M41 was prepared in the reported manner by using C 12 H 25 N(CH 3 ) 3 Br as the template and colloidal silica as the silica source.14 After calcination of M41 at 873 K for 6 h in air, the BET surface area and the BJH pore diameter determined by a N 2 adsorption measurement were 1010 m 2 g ¹1 and 2.12 nm, respectively. The hexagonal structure of resulting M41 was confirmed by appearance of 2ª = 2.580, 4.476, and 5.124 degree peaks in X-ray diffraction patterns (Cu K¡, ...