A new type of acidic macrocellular and mesoporous silica–alumina foam is obtained via a one pot alkaline sol–gel route coupled with a concentrated emulsion-based templating technique. The mixed oxide monolith exhibits high surface acidity, translating into excellent performance in the acid-catalyzed dehydration of bioethanol to ethene.
Debecker, D., Boissiere, C., Laurent, G., Huet, S., Eliaers, P., Sanchez, C., & Backov, R. (2015). First acidic macro-mesocellular aluminosilicate monolithic foams “SiAl(HIPE)” and their catalytic properties. Chemical Communications, 51(74), 14018-14021. https://doi.org/10.1039/c5cc05328e (Original work published 2015)