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e present work aims to study the affinity of a component of the thyme essential oil "thymol" to natural Moroccan clay "Rhassoul" using the adsorption technique. e physicochemical characterizations of the purified and modified clay were carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), DTA/TGA, and SEM-EDX. ymol adsorption tests on the purified Rhassoul (Rh-P) and the modified one by CTAB (Rh-CTAB) were followed by UV-visible spectroscopy. ey show that the adsorption isotherms can be described by the Freundlich model and that the kinetics of adsorption is in accordance with the pseudo-second-order model for the two clays. Adsorption capacities obtained were of the order of 6 mg/g for the purified Rhassoul and 16 mg/g for the modified Rhassoul by cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). ese values show that the modified Rhassoul has a better adsorption capacity compared to the purified Rhassoul.

<p>The fundamental character of the Mg-Al mixed oxide (Mg_n(Al)O), derived from the Mg-Al hydrotalcite (Mg_nAl-CO₃-HT), where n corresponds to the Mg/Al molar ratio (n: 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5 and 4), was studied by using the adsorption of phenol as a probe acid molecule. The hydrotalcite precursors were prepared by the coprecipitation method. Their derived mixed oxides were obtained by thermal treatment at 450°C in a flow of air. The resulting solids were characterized by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis             (TG-DTA), nitrogen physisorption (BET) and phenol chemisorption. The phenol adsorption followed by UV-Visible spectrophotometry shows that the basicity increases with the Mg/Al molar ratio, such that maximum quantity of phenol adsorbed (Q_ads = 0.54 mmol/g _cat) was obtained with the mixed oxide derived from the Mg-Al hydrotalcite of Mg/Al molar ratio equal to 3.5.</p>

The self-condensation reaction of acetone, producing diacetone alcohol (DAA), is of great industrial importance. It was used to study the catalytic activity of Mg-Al catalysts synthesized by the coprecipitation method. For this purpose, we synthesized Mg-Al based hydrotalcite with a molar ratio of 3, obtained either after conventional heating or after microwave irradiation with of 100 W for three minutes. Structural and chemical properties of the obtained catalysts were characterized, using different techniques: X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), equipped with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and specific surface area of the catalysts were determined by the methylene blue (MB) adsorption method. Also, these catalysts were tested in the self-condensation reaction of acetone at 273 K in the liquid phase without solvent, a reaction which requires very high catalytic activity. The microwave treatment improves the catalyst activity, and the conversion of acetone to diacetone alcohol increases from 13.2 to 18.3% after 8 h of reaction. Moreover, the microwave-treated hydrotalcite catalyst, calcined at 723 K and rehydrated under a flow of N2, is the most active and gives conversion of acetone of 52% under the same reaction conditions.

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