Templated coordination as a tool to increase the catalytic activity of metal aluminophosphates: the case of CoAPO-11

Abstract

The catalytic performance of CoAPO-11 can be significantly improved via sacrificing the ligand. By doping a small amount of Co and imidazole on APO-11, we obtained highly crystalline materials with different degrees of Co embedding. This feature was verified by XRD, UV-vis spectroscopy, H₂-TPR and ESR. The appropriate degree of embedding results in a large amount of Lewis acid active sites in CoAPO-11 which becomes a highly active catalyst for n-butene skeletal isomerization.