Abstract: By adjusting the prehydrolysis time of (2-(cyclopenta-1,3-dienyl)ethyl)triethoxysilane (TEECp), cyclopentadiene-containing mesoporous ethanesilica (Cp-PMO) was synthesized through the co-condensation of 1,2-bis(triethoxysilyl)ethane (BTEE) and TEECp using triblock PEO-PPO-PEO copolymer P123 as the structure-directing agent. The prepared material samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, N₂ adsorption-desorption, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The results showed that cyclopentadiene was successfully incorporated into the material, which had highly ordered hexagonal mesostructure. With increasing cyclopentadiene loading, the mesostructure order, pore size, BET surface area, and pore volume of Cp-PMO decreased, while the pore wall widths increased. The Cp-PMO with 30% cyclopentadiene loading showed high activity in the transesterification of ethyl acetate and n-butanol to n-butyl acetate and its yield was 10.6%.

Key words: co-condensation, cyclopentadiene, mesoporous material, ethyl acetate, butanol, transesterification, butyl acetate