Multifunctional shaped aluminosilica monoliths

The formulation of adsorbents is a main technological challenge, requiring pressing or extruding the powdered materials into a mechanically stable macroscopic form suitable for industrial use. The ability to prepare the macroscopic nanostructured monoliths is probably the most significant advantage of mesoporous ceramic oxides prepared in lyotropic phases over other materials obtained by classical precipitation techniques. This book provides knowledge on the synthesis of adsorbents formulated for a particular application already in the synthesis stage without any further costly treatment. Since the olefin/paraffin separations represent a class of most important and also most costly separations in the chemical and petrochemical industry, the development of new energy-saving separation processes is of great interest. Properties of the defect-free aluminosilica monoliths with desired texture, shape and size obtained using direct liquid-crystal templating method with a high concentration of non-ionic surfactants are presented here. These aluminosilica monoliths functionalized with Ag and Cu can be considered as selective adsorbents for uses in separation of propane/propene gas mixture.