Temperature-programmed desorption mass spectrometry was used to study the reaction of a series of primary amines (isobutylamine, isopentylamine, 1-pentylamine, 1-hexylamine, and 1-heptylamine) with a fumed silica surface. A mechanism was proposed and the kinetic parameters of the formation of alkenes from the chemisorbed aliphatic amine fragments on the silica surface were determined. A linear correlation was found between the activation energy and Taft constants for the substituents at the reaction site.Microporous and mesoporous basic catalysts hold great promise for use in fine organic synthesis [1]. Acid catalysts such as zeolites are commonly used in chromatography and catalysis [2]. However, these catalysts have weak basic properties. Thus, a current problem entails enhancing the basicity of these materials by the substitution of the oxygen atoms in the zeolite structure by various aliphatic amines [3][4][5]. The introduction of the amine NH group into the structure of silica catalysts enhances the Lewis basicity, permitting use of these materials in base catalysis, in particular, in oxidation [6] and especially in Knoevenagel reactions [7]. Furthermore, zeolites with basic properties are candidates for the replacement of liquid bases such as piperidine, alkali metal hydroxides, and alkali metal alkoxides in industrial processes [8].Studies have been carried out in the past decade on the properties of these new nitrogen-containing materials. Thus, Corma et al. [9] investigated the mechanisms of nitration by means of quantum-chemical calculations. Various workers have carried out NMR and IR spectral investigations of nitrogen-containing molecular sieves [3,5,10]. The major factors affecting the catalytic properties of nitrogen-containing silicates such as temperature, Si/Al atomic ratio, and nature of the nitrogen-containing modifier have been elucidated [5].However, a number of questions have not been resolved pertaining to the nature of the interaction of the nitrogen-containing compounds with the surface of the silica materials and the mechanism of the thermal transformations of the cross-linked nitrogen-containing groups during the synthesis of basic silica catalysts.
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