Synthesis of hierarchical SAPO- 11 using carbon materials with varying hydrophilicity as templates for the hydroisomerization of n-decane to its branched isomers

To efficiently convert n-alkanes into their isomers, a series of hierarchical SAPO- 11-based catalysts were synthesized using the carbon materials as hard templates. The hydrophilicity of carbon materials influences their dispersion in the synthetic gel of SAPO- 11. Carbon nanotubes (CN) with different hydrophilicity were obtained by the treatment of sodium hydroxide (SC) and nitric acid (AC). Among them, AC possesses the most oxygen-containing functional groups and the best hydrophilicity, and the SAPO- 11 molecular sieve synthesized using it as the template exhibits the smallest particle size and the largest mesopore volume. Additionally, its corresponding Ni-based catalyst presents the highest conversion (75.5%) and isomer selectivity (89.4%) at 320 °C, 2 MPa, 4 h⁻¹, and a H₂ to n-decane volume ratio of 667.