Hydrothermal synthesis and catalytic performance of bulky titanium silicalite-1 aggregates assembled by bridged organosilane

A facile and effective method to synthesize TS-1 zeolite aggregates has been presented. The crystallization of silanized seeds and nanocrystallites led to large and irregular TS-1 zeolite aggregates ranging from 5 to 40 μm in size, based on the special sol-gel chemistry of bridged organosilane. Epoxidation of 1-hexene and cyclohexene was used as a probe reaction to investigate the catalytic performance of the resulting materials. These TS-1 zeolite aggregates possessed both the conventional nanoparticle properties of TS-1 zeolites and variable surface hydrophilic/hydrophobic features, which enhanced the catalytic properties of hydroperoxides for alkene epoxidation. Moreover, the large aggregates effectively simplified the separation procedure during preparation and catalytic reactions.