Direct Observation of Coordinatively Unsaturated Sites on the Surface of a Fluoride-Doped Alumina Catalyst

Coordinatively unsaturated sites (CUS) present a key feature of alumina based catalysts as they are believed to act as Lewis-acid sites in heterogeneously catalyzed reactions. In the present study, the direct observation of active species on a fluoride-doped aluminum oxide catalyst is demonstrated. This new fluoride-doped aluminum oxide exhibits strong Lewis-acid sites and superior catalytic activity as compared to gamma-Al2O3. To emphasize the labile state of Lewis-acid sites, two distinctive states of the catalysts surface are addressed using H-1-Al-27 cross polarization (CP) MAS NMR. On the one hand, the highly dehydrated and active state after calcination at 700 degrees C and on the other hand the rehydrated and catalytically inactive surface (produced by contact to air) are probed. These experiments revealed the presence of significant amounts of coordinatively unsaturated sites in the form of 4-and 5-fold coordinated Al-sites on the highly dehydrated surface. In contrast to this, the rehydrated sample exhibited a severely restructured surface caused by the chemisorption of H2O which is ’constituted in a manner that was proposed in earlier models for gamma-Al2O3 surfaces.