I have been working on acidified silicas and found that bare mesoporous SiO2, when refluxed in 12M HCl, is apparently very active in the reaction I'm looking at. With further testing on the original material that sparked this further study, catalysis is heterogeneous as the reaction does not continue upon catalyst removal. I've searched literature and found references to SiO2-Cl, but this is usually prepared with CH2Cl. Does anyone have any idea what this could be?
Dear Cameron-Alexander Hurd Price . HCl can not react with SiO2(glass) even with heating (reflux). Actually HCl is stored in glass bottles . See the following useful link: https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/117364/will-silicon-dioxide-react-with-hydrochloric-acid#:~:text=No%2C%20HCl%20does%20not%20etch%20SiO2%20appreciably.&text=You%20can%20store%20HCl%20in,t%20do%20that%20with%20HF.&text=Well%2C%20Cl%20is%20very%20much%20not%20like%20F.
Cameron-Alexander Hurd Price My thought is that your acidifying the - OH groups on the surface of the SiO2 making a very active (but temporary) catalyst for some reactions. Look at doing some form of surface titration of the groups present. Some surface techniques such as XPS may be helpful but I'm not sure.
Thanks for that Aref! I am aware of this however, which is why I’m very confused at the apparent heterogeneous activity! The conditions sre not quite right to achieve true SiO2-Cl but something is clearly happening to the Silica as a result of the 12M reflux.
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