Synthesis of titanosilicate ETS-10 in presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide

The titanosilicate ETS-10 has been hydrothermally synthesized at 463 K for 3 days from the gels of molar composition 1.0 Na2O–0.2 TiO2–0.6 KF–1.28 HCl–xC16TMAB–1.49 SiO2–39.5 H2O, where C16TMAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) is shape-directing agent (template surfactant) and x = 0.05, 0.11, 0.20 and 0.30 moles. The effect of templating surfactant micelles on the crystallization and purity of ETS-10, on its crystallization field, the kinetics of crystallization and on the thermal stability of the structure is investigated. All the samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction, SEM, thermal analysis (TGA–DTG–DSC), nitrogen sorption and hpdec MAS 13CNMR techniques. The characterization results suggested that the nucleation time, crystal growth rate, morphology, the range of pH, the crystallization field and the thermal stability of the final ETS-10 products were dependant on the presence of surfactant C16TMAB as structure template in the alkaline silica–titania cogel. The ETS-10 is essentially microporous with a small mesoporous population