Ionic Liquid Templated Ordered Hexagonal Mesoporous Iron Phosphate Molecular Sieves: A Highly Effective Heterogeneous...

A highly organized hexagonal mesoporous iron phosphate framework structure with the designation HMI-41 was successfully synthesized for the first-time in a reproducible way using imidazolium-based ionic liquid as structure directing agent. The unique templating properties of ionic liquid generated a highly ordered well-crystallized mesoporous matrix having high surface area (445 m²  g^-1 ), thicker pore wall (2.1 nm) and narrow pore size distribution (3.1 nm). The presence of active sites within a tetrahedral framework structure made the novel HMI-41 catalyst highly effective for phenol hydroxylation in an acidic medium with hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant. The catalyst exhibited outstanding performance, achieving an impressive 80% hydroquinone selectivity and 21% phenol conversion with a hydroquinone-to-catechol ratio of seven, which is the highest value ever reported.