Nowadays the ability of ITQ6, a kind of
mesoporous zeolitic material to replace microporous zeolite as catalyst that involved
bulky molecules has attracted particular attention. ITQ6 can be obtained by delamination of a layered precursor of ferrierite known as PREFER. In this study the starting material, PREFER was first synthesized, followed by subsequent modification to
mesoporous material by delamination of PREFER using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, CTABr as swelling agent, sonication and finally calcination to obtain ITQ6. XRD, nitrogen
adsorption and pyridine adsorption were performed to confirm the phase structure, the surface porosity and acidity respectively of the synthesized ITQ6 sample. XRD result shows that the crystalline phase of PREFER diminished after modification treatment, giving amorphous type material. However, results from the surface porosity study of the ITQ6 sample has shown the formation of an organised mesoporous material with the pore size distribution between 3.5-4.0 nm and high external surface area. Besides its amorphous structure, acidity study of the material reveals that the ITQ6 sample still contains appreciable amounts of Bronsted and Lewis acidities. The acidity and mesoporosity of ITQ6 makes this material a catalyst
for organic reactions involving bulky molecules.