Morphological aspects determine the catalytic activity of porous hydrocalumites: the role of the sacrificial templates

Morphological modification of bulk layered double hydroxides (LDHs) into surface-engineered, porous materials enabled effective, base-catalyzed liquid phase Knoevenagel condensation in water. The increase the number accessible basic sites on LDH engineering led to enhancement reaction rate, whereas significant changes relative strength were found cause remarkable differences chemoselectivities. Thus, hydrocalumite (CaAl-LDH) catalysts allowed long-term and highly selective using reasonably mild conditions. advantages heterogeneous nature recyclability hydrocalumites also strengthened by advanced surface treatment. These key factors (basic sites, nature, heterogeneity) can be fine-tuned selecting appropriate sacrificial template (cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide, multiwalled carbon nanotubes, Santa Barbara Amorphous-15), which regulates morphology composites.