Preparation of mesoporous MCM-41 from natural sepiolite and its catalytic activity of cracking waste polystyrene plastics

Mesoporous MCM-41 was prepared by leaching of sepiolite and sequent hydrothermal synthesis in NaOH solution with hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide as template. Small-angle X-ray diffraction patterns, Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller were performed to characterize the resulting compounds. The results showed that the crystallinity and pore size of MCM-41 increased with increase of crystallization time, ratios of surfactant to SiO₂ and decrease of Mg content. The experimental results of catalytic cracking of polystyrene waste showed that the MCM-41 with MgO from natural sepiolite had high catalytic activity and good selectivity to monomer styrene for the catalytic cracking of polystyrene when the ratio of waste plastics to MCM-41 was 200. The side reactions yielded ethylbenzene, isopropylbenzene, isopropenylbenzene and secondary cross-linking were suppressed by basic species MgO in MCM-41.