The tertiary butylation of phenol has been investigated over a series of gallium-modified folded sheet mesoporous materials (Ga-FSM-16) with different Si/Ga ratios (Si/Ga = 80, 50, 20) synthesized by the microwave-hydrothermal (M-H) process and characterized by several spectroscopic techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N 2 adsorption, temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) of pyridine and 71 Ga MAS-NMR spectroscopy. The catalyst showed the best performance in the acidcatalyzed tertiary butylation of phenol employing tert-butanol as the alkylation agent. A high phenol conversion of 80.3% is observed for this catalyst at a reaction temperature of 160°C. However, the 4-tert-butyl phenol (4-TBP) yield amounts to 43.3% and the 2,4-di-tert-butyl phenol (2,4-DTBP) yield is 30.3%. Furthermore, due to the large pore size, which allows a faster diffusion of reactants and products, catalyst deactivation of Ga-FSM-16 (20) was not observed even after reaction for 5 h.

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The liquid-phase benzylation of aromatic compounds with benzyl chloride (BC) has been investigated over a series of iron-FSM-16 materials with different Si/Fe ratios (Si/Fe = 90, 60, and 10) synthesized by a microwavehydrothermal (M-H) process and characterized by several spectroscopic techniques such as N 2 adsorption measurements, X-ray diffraction, electron spin resonance (ESR) and Mössbauer spectroscopy. Catalytic data in the benzylation of aromatic compounds such as benzene and toluene with BC show that Fe-FSM-16 samples synthesized by the M-H process are very active and recyclable catalysts. The kinetics of benzene benzylation over this catalyst has been thoroughly investigated.

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Liquid phase acetylation of 1,2 dimethoxybenzene with acetic anhydride has been examined for a series of acid gallium mesoporous materials (MCM 41) with different Si/Ga ratios (Si/Ga = 80, 50 and 10) synthesized by microwave irradiation method. Physical adsorption of nitrogen, inductively coupled plasma, and the X ray diffraction techniques, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectros copy, and a temperature programmed desorption of pyridine were applied to characterize the catalysts. A mesoporous sample with Si/Ga = 10 showed better performance in the acid cataiyzed acetylation of 1,2 dimethoxybenzene with acetic anhydride as an acylating agent. In addition, the kinetics of the reaction in the presence of these catalysts has been investigated.