ABSTRACT VANADIUM AND MOLYBDENUM INCORPORATED MCM-41 CATALYSTS FOR SELECTIVE OXIDATION OF ETHANOL G&uuml / &ccedil / bilmez, YeSim Ph.D., Department of Chemical Engineering Supervisor : Prof. Dr. Timur Dogu Co-Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Suna Balci June 2005, 144 pages In this study, V-MCM-41, MCM-41 and Mo-MCM-41 catalysts were synthesized by the one-pot alkaline and acidic synthesis methods. The as-synthesized catalysts were found to have high BET surface areas (430-1450 m2/g), homogeneous pore size distributions (2-4 nm), good crystalline patterns and high metal loading levels (Metal/Si atomic ratio in the solid = 0.01-0.16) as determined by the characterization studies. MCM-41 and Mo-MCM-41 catalysts were highly active in the selective oxidation of ethanol with conversion levels of 56% and 71%, respectively, at 400oC for an O2/EtOH feed ratio of 0.5. Both catalysts had very high selectivities to acetaldehyde at temperatures below 300oC. Conversions exceeded 95% with the V-MCM-41 catalyst having a V/Si molar ratio (in the solid) of 0.04 in the temperature range of 300oC-375oC for the O2/EtOH feed ratios of 0.5-2.0. Acetaldehyde selectivities changed between 0.82-1.00 at the temperature range of 150oC-250oC. Ethylene, which is listed as a minor side product of the selective oxidation of ethanol in literature, was produced with a maximum yield of 0.66 at 400oC at the O2/EtOH feed ratio of 0.5. This yield is higher than the yields obtained in the industrial ethylene production methods such as thermal cracking and oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane. Besides, the feedstock used in this work is a non-petroleum chemical, namely ethanol, which can be produced from sugar and crop wastes by fermentation. Thus, the findings of this study are also proposed as an alternative ethylene production method from a non-petroleum reactant at lower temperatures with higher yields. &Ouml / Z ETANOL&Uuml / N SE&Ccedil / iCi OKSiDASYONUNDA KULLANILMAK &Uuml / ZERE VANADYUM VE MOLiBDEN i&Ccedil / EREN MCM-41 KATALiZ&Ouml / RLERiNiN &Uuml / RETiMi G&uuml / &ccedil / bilmez, YeSim Doktora, Kimya M&uuml / hendisligi B&ouml / l&uuml / m&uuml / Tez Y&ouml / neticisi : Prof. Dr. Timur Dogu Ortak Tez Y&ouml / neticisi: Prof. Dr. Suna Balci Haziran 2005, 144 sayfa Bu &ccedil / aliSma kapsaminda, dogrudan sentez metoduyla, alkali ve asit ortamlarinda, V-MCM-41, MCM-41 ve Mo-MCM-41 kataliz&ouml / rleri sentezlenmiStir. Bu Sekilde sentezlenen kataliz&ouml / rlerin y&uuml / ksek BET y&uuml / zey alanlarina (430-1450 m2/g), homojen g&ouml / zenek boyutu dagilimlarina (2-4 nm), iyi kristal yapilarina ve y&uuml / ksek metal y&uuml / kleme oranlarina (Metal/Si katidaki molar orani =0.01-0.16) sahip olduklari karakterizasyon &ccedil / aliSmalari sonucunda g&ouml / r&uuml / lm&uuml / St&uuml / r. MCM-41 ve Mo-MCM-41 kataliz&ouml / rleri etanol&uuml / n se&ccedil / ici oksidasyonunda, 400oC&amp / #8217 / de ve reakt&ouml / r giriSinde 0.5&amp / #8217 / lik O2/EtOH oraninda, sirasiyla, 56% ve 71% d&ouml / n&uuml / S&uuml / m seviyeleriyle, y&uuml / ksek aktivite g&ouml / stermiSlerdir. Her iki kataliz&ouml / r de 300oC&amp / #8217 / nin altinda &ccedil / ok y&uuml / ksek asetaldehit se&ccedil / iciligi g&ouml / stermiStir. D&ouml / n&uuml / S&uuml / m degerleri, V/Si katidaki molar orani 0.04 olan V-MCM-41 kataliz&ouml / r&uuml / i&ccedil / in / 300oC-375oC araliginda ve 0.5-0.2 O2/EtOH reakt&ouml / r giriSi oranlarinda, 95%&amp / #8217 / i ge&ccedil / miStir. Asetaldehit se&ccedil / icilikleri, 150oC-250oC araliginda, 0.82-1.00 arasinda degiSmiStir. Literat&uuml / rde, etil alkol&uuml / n se&ccedil / ici oksidasyonunda &ouml / nemsiz bir yan &uuml / r&uuml / n olarak s&ouml / z&uuml / ge&ccedil / en etilen, 400oC&amp / #8217 / de ve 0.5&amp / #8217 / lik O2/EtOH reakt&ouml / r giriS oraninda 0.66 maksimum verimle &uuml / retilmiStir. Bu verim degeri isil par&ccedil / alanma ve etanin kismi oksidasyonu gibi end&uuml / striyel etilen &uuml / retim yollariyla elde edilen verimlerden daha y&uuml / ksektir. Ayrica, bu &ccedil / aliSmada kullanilan etanol petrol-bazli olmayan bir hammaddedir ve Seker pancari atiklarindan fermentasyonla &uuml / retilebilmektedir. Bu sebeple, bu &ccedil / aliSmadaki bulgular, petrol-bazli olmayan bir hammaddeden, daha d&uuml / S&uuml / k sicaklikta, daha y&uuml / ksek verimle etilen elde etmek i&ccedil / in alternatif bir &uuml / retim metodu olarak da &ouml / nerilmiStir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Etilen, Etil alkol, Se&ccedil / ici Oksidasyon, MCM-41, V-MCM-41, Mo-MCM-41, Oksidatif Dihidrojenasyon, Kismi Oksidasyon

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:41:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 KesiaKV.pdf: 2272602 bytes, checksum: 46f23a52fbc9d4e74dfd9f25d2f58e11 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-02-19 / In present work, mesoporous materials of the M41S family were synthesized, which were discovered in the early 90s by researchers from Mobil Oil Corporation, thus allowing new perspectives in the field of catalysis. One of the most important members of this family is the MCM-41, which has a hexagonal array of mesopores with pore diameters ranging from 2 to 10 nm and a high surface area, enabling it to become very promising for the use as a catalyst in the refining of oil in the catalytic cracking process, since the mesopores facilitate the access of large hydrocarbon molecules, thereby increasing the production of light products, that are in high demand in the market. The addition of aluminum in the structure of MCM-41 increases the acidity of the material, making it more beneficial for application in the petrochemical industry. The mesoporous materials MCM-41 and Al-MCM-41 (ratio Si / Al = 50) were synthesized through the hydrothermal method, starting with silica gel, NaOH and distilled water. CTMABr was used as template, for structural guiding. In Al-MCM-41 the same reactants were used, with the adding of pseudoboehmite (as a source of aluminum) in the synthesis gel. The syntheses were carried out over a period of four days with a daily adjustment of pH. The optimum conditions of calcination for the removal of the organic template (CTMABr) were discovered through TG / DTG and also through analysis by XRD, FTIR and Nitrogen Adsorption. It was found that both the method of hydrothermal synthesis and calcination conditions of the studies based on TG were promising for the production of mesoporous materials with a high degree of hexagonal array. The acidic properties of the materials were determined by desorption of n-butylamine via thermogravimetry. One proved that the addition of aluminum in the structure of MCM-41 promoted an increase in the acidity of the catalyst. To check the catalytic activity of these materials, a sample of Atmospheric Residue (RAT) that is derived from atmospheric distillation of oil from the Pole of Guamar?- RN was used. This sample was previously characterized by various techniques such as Thermogravimetry, FTIR and XRF, where through thermal analysis of a comparative study between the thermal degradation of the RAT, the RAT pyrolysis + MCM-41 and RAT + Al- MCM-41. It was found that the Al-MCM-41 was most satisfactory in the promotion of a catalytic effect on the pyrolysis of the RAT, as the cracking of heavy products in the waste occurred at temperatures lower than those observed for the pyrolysis with MCM-41, and thereby also decreasing the energy of activation for the process and increasing the rates of conversion of residue into lighter products / No presente trabalho, foram sintetizados materiais mesoporos da fam?lia M41S que foram descobertos no in?cio dos anos 90 por pesquisadores da Mobil Oil Corporation, possibilitando assim novas perspectivas no ramo da cat?lise. Um dos mais importantes membros desta fam?lia ? o MCM-41, que possui um arranjo hexagonal de mesoporos com di?metros de poros entre 2 a 10 nm e uma alta ?rea superficial, tornando-o bastante promissor para ser utilizado como catalisador no refino do petr?leo para o craqueamento catal?tico, j? que seus mesoporos facilitam o acesso de mol?culas grandes de hidrocarbonetos, aumentando assim a produ??o de produtos leves com uma alta demanda no mercado. A adi??o de alum?nio na estrutura do MCM-41 aumenta a acidez do material, tornando-o mais positivo para aplica??o na ind?stria petroqu?mica. Os materiais mesoporosos do tipo MCM-41 e Al-MCM- 41 (raz?o Si/Al=50) foram sintetizados atrav?s do m?todo hidrot?rmico partindo da S?lica gel, NaOH e ?gua destilada. Como direcionador estrutural foi utilizado CTMABr. Para o Al- MCM-41 utilizaram-se os mesmos reagentes acrescentando a pseudobohemita (fonte de alum?nio) no gel de s?ntese. As s?nteses foram realizadas durante um per?odo de quatro dias com corre??o di?ria de pH. As melhores condi??es de calcina??o para remo??o do direcionador org?nico (CTMABr) foram otimizadas por TG/DTG e atrav?s de an?lises por DRX, FTIR e adsor??o de nitrog?nio verificou-se que tanto o m?todo de s?ntese hidrot?rmica como as condi??es de calcina??o baseado nos estudos por TG foram promissores para produ??o de materiais mesoporosos com alto grau de ordena??o hexagonal. As propriedades ?cidas dos materiais foram determinadas pela dessor??o de n- butilamina via termogravimetria. Comprovou-se que a adi??o de alum?nio na estrutura do MCM-41 promoveu um aumento na acidez deste catalisador. Para verificar a atividade catal?tica desses materiais utilizou-se uma amostra do Res?duo Atmosf?rico (RAT) que ? proveniente da destila??o atmosf?rica do petr?leo proveniente do P?lo de Guamar?- RN previamente caracterizado por v?rias t?cnicas como: Termogravimetria, FTIR e FRX, realizando-se atrav?s da an?lise t?rmica um estudo comparativo entre a degrada??o t?rmica do RAT, pir?lise do RAT+MCM-41 e RAT+Al-MCM-41. Verificou-se que o Al-MCM-41 promoveu um efeito catal?tico mais satisfat?rio na pir?lise do RAT, j? que o craqueamento dos produtos pesados presentes no res?duo ocorreu em temperaturas inferiores ?s observadas para a pir?lise com MCM-41 e com isso diminuindo tamb?m a energia de ativa??o para o processo, bem como aumentando os valores de convers?o do res?duo em produtos leves

<p>The main issue in this thesis is to minimize the number of operations and the energy consumption per operation for the computation (arithmetic operation) part of DSP circuits, such as Finite Impulse Response Filters (FIR), Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), and Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) etc. More specific, the focus is on the elimination of most frequent common sub-expression (CSE) in binary, Canonic Sign Digit (CSD), Twos Complement or Sign Digit representation of the coefficients of non-recursive multiple input multiple output (MIMO)  FIR system , which can be realized using shift-and-add based operations only. The possibilities to reduce the complexity i.e. the chip area, and the energy consumption have been investigated.</p><p>We have proposed an algorithm which finds the most common sub expression in the binary/CSD/Twos Complement/Sign Digit representation of coefficients of non-recursive MIMO multiplier less FIR systems. We have implemented the algorithm in MATLAB. Also we have proposed different tie-breakers for the selection of most frequent common sub-expression, which will affect the complexity (Area and Power consumption) of the overall system. One choice (tie breaker) is to select the pattern (if there is a tie for the most frequent pattern) which will result in minimum number of delay elements and hence the area of the overall system will be reduced. Another tie-breaker is to choose the pattern which will result in minimum adder depth (the number of cascaded adders). Minimum adder depth will result in least number of glitches which is the main factor for the power consumption in MIMO multiplier less FIR systems. Switching activity will be increased when glitches are propagated to subsequent adders (which occur if adder depth is high). As the power consumption is proportional to the switching activity (glitches) hence we will use the sub-expression which will result in lowest adder depth for the overall system.</p>

A research project was carried out to investigate several aspects of Mobil’s composition of matter #41 (MCM-41) pertaining to its potential application in water treatment technologies. The goal of the work was to lead to a recommendation of whether further work investigating this particular, potential application is warranted at the present time. A dissolution experiment indicated that Pd/MCM-41 is more stable in contact with deionized water at 25±0.1 degrees Celsius than purely siliceous MCM-41. Stability increases with increasing mass percent loading of Pd in the Pd/MCM-41 material. The increased stability was attributed to a reduction in Pd/MCM-41 surface areas relative to the parent MCM-41 material. The reduction in surface area is likely the result of partial or complete blocking of the MCM-41 mesopores by Pd centres. Ni/MCM-41 was less stable in contact with deionized water than MCM-41 and Pd/MCM-41. Both Ni and Pd impregnated MCM-41 exhibited enhanced stability relative to purely siliceous MCM-41 in 0.01 M NaCl solution. The stability enhancement was more pronounced for Pd/MCM-41. A long term dissolution experiment showed that MCM-41 retained its characteristic hexagonal mesopore structure and high surface area after 1,174 days of contact with deionized water. The ability of Pd/MCM-41 to absorb hydrogen was investigated in a series of experiments in pressure cells at 25±0.1 degrees Celsius and approximately 101.3 kPa. The Pd in Pd/MCM-41 was able to absorb 0.85±0.18 moles of hydrogen per mole of Pd present. This was a higher level of absorption than found in most other, published Pd-hydrogen investigations. It is proposed that enhanced uptake of hydrogen by Pd/MCM-41 may be the result of a higher proportion of surface and subsurface sites in the samples relative to other supported Pd materials. Batch and column trichloroethylene (TCE) degradation experiments indicated that Pd/MCM-41 has substantial longevity while degrading at least 91% of inflow TCE concentrations in hydrogen-saturated deionized water over 5,036 pore volumes. The average inflow TCE concentration was 4.94E-2 ± 4.87E-3 mmol/l with maximum and minimum concentrations of 7.24E-2 mmol/l and 2.63E-2 mmol/l, respectively. The dominant breakdown product of TCE degradation in the presence of Pd/MCM-41 was ethane. Minimal concentrations of intermediate degradation products were detected, if at all. This result suggests that TCE completely degrades to ethane before desorbing from the Pd/MCM-41 surface. It was shown that Pd/MCM-41 was more effective and had better longevity at treating inflow TCE compared to a lower cost substitute, Pd/sand. Unlike Pd/MCM-41, Ni/MCM-41 did not induce degradation of TCE. Column experiments using Ni-Pd/MCM-41 materials indicated that while the material does induce degradation of TCE, the Pd cannot be substituted for Ni on a 1:1 basis while still obtaining similar degradation results as Pd/MCM-41. Pd/MCM-41 was not able to substantially reduce initial concentrations of hexamethylphosphoramide (HMPA) in a batch experiment. A small reduction in the initial HMPA concentration was attributed to adsorption onto the Pd/MCM-41 surfaces rather than degradation of the compound. Several of the above-mentioned results suggest that MCM-41 and Pd/MCM-41 show great potential for being incorporated into water treatment technologies. Both the long term stability of the material in contact with deionized water and the longevity of a Pd/MCM-41 column in treating inflow TCE are very promising results with respect to applications in water treatment technologies. It is recommended that future work be pursued with this goal in mind.

Deuteron 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy was used to study the dynamics of water molecules within the mesoporous material MCM-41. The deuteron spectra show three magnetization components for a sample hydrated to a 0.2 monolayer level. One component was assigned to the pore surface silanol group deuterons that exhibit a broad Gaussian line of 32.6 kHz FWHM and the other components were assigned to the water deuterons. At room temperature one water deuteron component has a powder pattern line shape (splitting of about 4.2 kHz and population of about 61%) and the other has a Lorentzian line shape (about 388 Hz FWHM and population of 39%). Magnetization exchange occurs between these components. An exchange model, based on multi-site exchange, was constructed and used to analyse the results for exchange. For the 0.2 monolayer sample the rate of magnetization exchange out of the hydration site where the water deuterons exhibit a Lorentzian line in the deuteron spectra is 1.3 ms. 2D measurements at 233 K and room temperature confirmed the magnetization exchange scenario for the two water deuteron sites. Combining the deuteron results with proton-silicon cross polarization magic angle spinning experiments together with heat treatment of the sample, definitive hydration site identification for MCM-41 was achieved. This study has shown that the water molecules bound to the hydrogen-bonded silanol groups produce the powder pattern while water molecules bound to the single silanol groups produce the Lorentzian line. This represents a necessary first step toward a meaningful modeling of NMR observables in terms of site-specific water molecule coordination and dynamics in MCM-41.

Deuteron 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy was used to study the dynamics of water molecules within the mesoporous material MCM-41. The deuteron spectra show three magnetization components for a sample hydrated to a 0.2 monolayer level. One component was assigned to the pore surface silanol group deuterons that exhibit a broad Gaussian line of 32.6 kHz FWHM and the other components were assigned to the water deuterons. At room temperature one water deuteron component has a powder pattern line shape (splitting of about 4.2 kHz and population of about 61%) and the other has a Lorentzian line shape (about 388 Hz FWHM and population of 39%). Magnetization exchange occurs between these components. An exchange model, based on multi-site exchange, was constructed and used to analyse the results for exchange. For the 0.2 monolayer sample the rate of magnetization exchange out of the hydration site where the water deuterons exhibit a Lorentzian line in the deuteron spectra is 1.3 ms. 2D measurements at 233 K and room temperature confirmed the magnetization exchange scenario for the two water deuteron sites. Combining the deuteron results with proton-silicon cross polarization magic angle spinning experiments together with heat treatment of the sample, definitive hydration site identification for MCM-41 was achieved. This study has shown that the water molecules bound to the hydrogen-bonded silanol groups produce the powder pattern while water molecules bound to the single silanol groups produce the Lorentzian line. This represents a necessary first step toward a meaningful modeling of NMR observables in terms of site-specific water molecule coordination and dynamics in MCM-41.

The discovery of MCM-41 materials have attracted substantial research attention due to the remarkable features of these materials including a narrow pore size distribution, high surface area, high pore volume, and high thermal and hydrothermal stability, as well as, parallel hexagonal arrangement of uniform cylindrical pores without pore channel intersection. These well-defined structural characteristics make them ideal media to study the adsorption, catalysis, ion exchange, and separation. MCM-41 sample used in this study was synthesized in (Chemical Engineering Department, Gazi University). The MCM-41 was synthesized by using sodium silicate (0.0705 mol, 27% Silica) as a source of silica and surfactant cetyltrimethylammoniumbromides (CTMABr) (0.036 mol) as template. A characteristic feature of this direct hydothermal synthesis was relatively long synthesis time (96 hour at 120&deg / C). MCM-41 was characterized by using XRD, and nitrogen physisorption analysis techniques. The characteristic peak in the low-angle region corresponding to 2&amp / #952 / = 2.406&deg / was obtained for MCM-41 sample indicating high structural ordering of the MCM-41sample. The BET, surface area was found as (492.2 m /g), with an average pore diameter (25 &Aring / ). In this study the sorption equilibrium of C aromatics (p-xylene, m-xylene, o-xylene, and ethylbenzene ) on MCM-41 at different temperatures (30&deg / C, 50&deg / C, 65&deg / C, 80&deg / C) was investigated by using an automated gravimetric electrobalance system. It was found that the amounts of each sorbate (p-xylene, m-xylene, o-xylene, and ethylbenzene) adsorbed at a given relative pressure on MCM-41 decreased when the temperature of the adsorption isotherms increases. The adsorption isotherms were type V, according to IUPAC isotherm classification due to the mesoporous nature of the MCM-41 sample. The hysteresis are associated with condensation-evaporation within a narrow distribution of mesopores with each adsorption isotherms. It was shown that as the temperature for the adsorption isotherms increases the size of hysteresis decreases for each sorbate. The volume of sorbates (V ) were obtained from the mass uptake at maximum relative pressure by taking the normal liquid density at the adsorption temperature for all sorbates. These values are significantly lower than that obtained from low-temperature nitrogen isotherm. The reason of this difference is that the density of the adsorbed phase is unlikely to be exactly the same as that of the liquid adsorptive and curvature of some isotherms at high relative pressure leads to uncertainty in the location of the upper limit for pore filling.

<p>In this thesis, a multirate realization of an interpolation operation is explored. As one of the requirements for proper functionality of the digital pulse-width modulator, a 16-bit digital input signal is to be upsampled 32 times. To obtain the required oversampling ratio, five separate interpolator stages were designed and implemented. Each interpolator stage performed uppsampling by a factor of two followed by an image-rejection lowpass FIR filter. Since, each individual interpolator stage upsamples the input signal by a factor of two, interpolation filters were realized as a half-band FIR filters. This kind of linear-phase FIR filters have a nice property of having every other filter coefficient equal to zero except for the middle one which equals 0.5. By utilizing the half-band FIR filters for the actual realization of the interpolation filters, the overall computational complexity was substantially reduced. In addition, several multirate techniques have been utilized for deriving more efficient interpolator structures. Hence, the impulse response of individual interpolator filters was rewritten into its corresponding polyphase form. This further simplifies the interpolator realization. To eliminate multiplication by 0.5 in one of two polyphase subfilters, the filter gain was deliberately increased by a factor of two. Thus, one polyphase path only contained delay elements. In addition, for the realization of filter multipliers, a multiple constant multiplication, (MCM), algorithm was utilized. The idea behind the MCM algorithm, was to perform multiplication operations as a number of addition operations and appropriate input signal shifts. As a result, less hardware was needed for the actual interpolation chain implementation. For the correct functionality of the interpolator chain, scaling coefficients were introduced into the each interpolation stage. This is done in order to reduce the possibility of overflow. For the scaling process, a safe scaling method was used. The actual quantization noise generated by the interpolator chain was also estimated and appropriate system adjustments were performed.</p>

In this thesis, a multirate realization of an interpolation operation is explored. As one of the requirements for proper functionality of the digital pulse-width modulator, a 16-bit digital input signal is to be upsampled 32 times. To obtain the required oversampling ratio, five separate interpolator stages were designed and implemented. Each interpolator stage performed uppsampling by a factor of two followed by an image-rejection lowpass FIR filter. Since, each individual interpolator stage upsamples the input signal by a factor of two, interpolation filters were realized as a half-band FIR filters. This kind of linear-phase FIR filters have a nice property of having every other filter coefficient equal to zero except for the middle one which equals 0.5. By utilizing the half-band FIR filters for the actual realization of the interpolation filters, the overall computational complexity was substantially reduced. In addition, several multirate techniques have been utilized for deriving more efficient interpolator structures. Hence, the impulse response of individual interpolator filters was rewritten into its corresponding polyphase form. This further simplifies the interpolator realization. To eliminate multiplication by 0.5 in one of two polyphase subfilters, the filter gain was deliberately increased by a factor of two. Thus, one polyphase path only contained delay elements. In addition, for the realization of filter multipliers, a multiple constant multiplication, (MCM), algorithm was utilized. The idea behind the MCM algorithm, was to perform multiplication operations as a number of addition operations and appropriate input signal shifts. As a result, less hardware was needed for the actual interpolation chain implementation. For the correct functionality of the interpolator chain, scaling coefficients were introduced into the each interpolation stage. This is done in order to reduce the possibility of overflow. For the scaling process, a safe scaling method was used. The actual quantization noise generated by the interpolator chain was also estimated and appropriate system adjustments were performed.

The removal of trace amounts of acetylene in ethylene streams is a high-volume industrial process that must possess high selectivity of alkyne hydrogenation over hydrogenation of alkenes. Current technology uses metallic nanoparticles, typically palladium or platinum, for acetylene removal. However, problems arise due to the deactivation of the catalysts at high temperatures as well as low selectivities at high conversions. Pore expanded MCM-41 is synthesized via a two-step strategy in which MCM-41 was prepared via cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTMABr) followed by the hydrothermal treatment with N,N-dimethyldecylamine (DMDA). This material was washed with ethanol to remove DMDA, or calcined to remove both surfactants. PE-MCM-41 based materials were impregnated with palladium, gold, and palladium-gold nanoparticles. The removal of DMDA had an effect on both the conversion and selectivity, in which they were found to drop significantly. However, by using the bimetallic PdAu catalysts, higher selectivity could be achieved due to increased electron density.