Abstract: Mesoporous MCM41 materials with different Si/Al molar ratios are synthesized under hydrothermal condition, and used as catalysts for vaporphase selective o-methylation of catechol with methanol. The performancesof the mesoporous MCM41 materials were also compared with those of various aluminosilicates molecular sieves to investigate the influences of pore size, the amount and strength of acid sites on the catalytic activity. The results show that MCM-41 with Si ∶[KG-*3〗Al=100 exhibits a good catalytic activity and selectivity to guaiacol. This may mainly be attributed to the relative large pore size and the presence of suitable amounts of weak acid on the surface of catalyst.

Key words: MCM-41, aluminosilicates, guaiacol, catechol, methanol