Textural, structural and catalytic properties of zirconia doped by heteropolytungstic acid: a comparative study between aerogel and xerogel catalysts

Zirconia doped by heteropolytungstic acid HPW have been synthesized by sol–gel method using two drying techniques of the solvent evacuation. Samples were analyzed with adsorption–desorption of N₂ at 77 K, and the aerogel catalyst was found to exhibit a higher surface area and a higher average pore diameter compared to xerogel. XRD results show that aerogel develops ZrO₂ tetragonal phase, whereas xerogel is amorphous. The thermal analysis studies show that the aerogel’s thermal stability is better than the xerogel one. The catalytic behavior of the aerogel and xerogel toward the nature of the isomerization products probably depends on the acidity and the presence of carbide species. This has been explained by XPS and isopropanol dehydration reaction. In fact, the deconvolution aerogel’s Cls bands reveals the presence of four carbon species assigned to C–C, C=O, C–O and carbide species.