Characterization of Fe-MCM-41 molecular sieves by 9-287 GHz EPR spectroscopy

COLL 190

Tatyana A. Konovalova, Lowell D. Kispert, and Yunlong Gao. Department of Chemistry, University of Alabama, Box 870336, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
Incorporation of transition metals into framework of molecular sieves has received considerable attention due to the new catalytic properties of the modified materials. We report characterization of Fe(III)-MCM-41 molecular sieves by multifrequency EPR. The 95-287 GHz measurements provide resolution of the unresolved at 9 GHz EPR line due to overlapping signals from different Fe(III) sites. The peak with g=2.45 is assigned to aggregated iron species. The signal with g=2.07 was attributed to Fe(III) coordinated to oxygen atoms on the surface of the pore. A sharp line with gx=gy=2.003, gz=1.99 was attributed to a single Fe(III) site. The 9-95 GHz EPR measurements indicated that extra-framework iron at the surface of the mesopores are mostly responsible for carotenoid oxidation in Fe(III)-MCM-41.