Bifunctional Silica-Supported Ionic Liquid Phase (SILP) Catalysts in Silane Production: Their Synthesis, Characterization and Catalytic Activity

Abstract

A mesoporous silica support was synthesized using the sol–gel method from trichlorosilane. There is a tendency for the specific surface area and the proportion of silica particles mesopores to increase during all stages of sol–gel synthesis. It has been shown that the insertion of hexane and toluene, as additional solvents, into the structure-forming polyethylene glycol, makes it possible to regulate the pore size and specific surface area of silica. Silica functionalization was carried out using SILP technology. The activities of the catalytic systems based on polymer and inorganic supports immobilized by imidazole-based ionic liquids during the trichlorosilane disproportionation reaction were compared. There is a tendency for the monosilane yield for catalytic systems based on an inorganic support to increase. We identified the most promising catalyst in terms of monosilane yield and proposed a bifunctional catalyst that exhibited activity in two parallel reactions: trichlorosilane disproportionation and silicon tetrachloride hydrogenation.