Influence of Wood Flour Additive on Porous Structure and Strength Properties of Moulded Alumina

Abstract

The moulded Al2O3 materials prepared by mixing of thermochemically activated aluminum trihydroxide (TCA ATH) with wood flour were proposed to be used as promising porous catalyst support for various processes. A series of Al2O3 supports with different wood flour loading (0, 2 and 5 %wt.) were studied by SEM, low-temperature N2 sorption, XRD, granule strength and water-absorbing capacity. It was shown that supports were characterized by porous structure with mesopore sizes of 2-20 nm and specific surface area of 159-186 m2/g. The increase of the amount of wood flour leads to increase of the share of pore volume with wider than 10 nm and the decrease of the strength of alumina granules. Thus, optimization of preparation conditions allows obtaining alumina materials with desired porous structure.