A novel highly ordered mesoporous carbon-based solid acid for synthesis of bisphenol-A

Abstract

A novel highly ordered mesoporous carbon-based solid acid was prepared through controlled sulfonation of F127 type mesoporous carbons prepared via a solvent evaporation induced self-assembly method. The influence of sulfonation temperature was investigated, suggesting an optimum temperature of 180 °C. The sulfonated samples were characterized by means of N₂ adsorption–desorption, XRD, TEM and FT-IR. The SO₃H group-functionalized mesoporous carbon showed a specific surface of 393 m² g⁻¹, pore volumes of 0.33 cm³ g⁻¹, an average pore size of 3.7 nm and a SO₃H group density of 1.71 mmol g⁻¹. The mesoporous carbon-based solid acid effectively catalyzed the condensation of phenol with acetone. The increased catalytic performance was attributed to a uniform mesoporous structure and hydrophobic surface properties.