1. A. Popa a, V. Sasca a, I. Holclajtner-Antunovic b, O. Verdes a and L. Avram a a Institute of Chemistry Timisoara of Romanian Academy, 24 Mihai Viteazul Ave, 300223-Timisoara, Romania b University of Belgrade, Faculty of Physical Chemistry, P.O.Box 47, 11158 Belgrade, Serbia DSC AND TG-DTA INVESTIGATIONS OF AG-DOPED H 3 PW 12 O 40 HETEROPOLYACIDS SUPPORTED ON MESOPOROUS MATERIALS INTRODUCTION Aim: Heteropolyacids (HPAs) with Keggin structure and their salts unsupported and supported on different materials have been applied to catalyse a large spectrum of chemical reactions, both in the heterogeneous and homogeneous systems. Heteropolyacid salts are prepared by partially exchanging protons of the parent HPAs with different cations. As HPAs salts are insoluble, the SBA-15 supported Ag-acid salt was prepared by two-step sequential impregnation and in situ reaction on the support. In order to be more effective for catalytic reactions, HPAs are usually impregnated or incorporated on different porous materials with high surface area. Direct incorporation of heteropolyacid H 3 PW 12 O 40 and its Ag salt Ag 2 HPW 12 O 40 (AgHPW) into mesoporous silica molecular sieve SBA - 15 and titania TiO 2 during the synthesis was studied. The goal of this work was to characterise the thermal stability of these heteropolyacid salts supported on mesoporous silica and titania matrix in reference to the bulk solid heteropolyacid Ag salts. Synthesis: Ag 2 HPW 12 O 40 (AgHPW) - SBA15 composites were synthesised as follows: first silver nitrate was impregnated by aqueous incipient wetness onto SBA-15 molecular sieve, dried and calcined at 300°C and finally 12-tungstophosphoric acid was impregnated by a similar aqueous impregnation route. For (AgHPW) - TiO 2 composites the same preparation procedure was used. The effect of incorporation of heteropolyacids species on SBA-15 and titania matrix was studied. The AgHPW was deposited in the concentration of 30 wt. % loading. Mesoporous silica SBA-15 was synthesized according to the procedure developed by D.Zhao et al. by the hydrolysis of tetraethyl orthosilicate using as surfactant a P123 block copolymer. CONCLUSIONS  The AgHPAs anions preserved their Keggin structure on the surface of AgHPW - SBA15 and AgHPW - TiO 2 composites and forms finely dispersed HPAs species.  The molecular sieves-HPW composites exhibit differential pore size distribution in the mesoporosity range.  Immobilization on SBA-15 molecular sieve maintain the thermal stability of the Keggin structures in comparison with their bulk heteropolyacid Ag salt, as decomposition of the structure to corresponding oxides take place between 590-600ºC for both bulk salt and SBA-15 supported salts.  The favourable effect of HPAs incorporation on silica molecular sieve is the increasing of pore volume and specific surface area, which in fact make the silica-HPA composites proper for heterogeneous catalysis. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Fig. 1. FTIR spectra of AgHPW - SBA15 composites Fig. 3. DSC analysis of Ag x H 3-x PW 12 O 40 (AgHPW) with x= 1.0, 2.0, 2.5 and 3 1 2 3 DSC - Thermal analysis DSC analysis was carried out with a Mettler Star system DSC 823 apparatus. The samples with mass of 20 - 40 mg were placed in Pt crucible of 150 ml. TGA/DTA - Thermal analysis was carried out using a TGA/DTA 851-LF 1100 Mettler apparatus. The samples with mass of about 100 mg were placed in alumina crucible of 900 ml. The experiments were conducted in air or nitrogen flow of 50 mL·min–1, in the temperature range of 25–700°C with a heating rate of 10°C·min –1. Fig. 6 a - c Thermogravimetry analyses of AgH 2 PW 12 O 40 (a) Ag 3 PW 12 O 40 (b) Ag 2 HPW - SBA15 composites TG-DTG and DTA analysis Fig. 2. FTIR spectra of AgHPW – TiO 2 composites The I.R. absorption spectra were recorded with a Jasco 430 spectrometer (spectral range 4000-400 cm -1 range, 256 scans, and resolution 2 cm -1 ) using KBr pellets. Fig. 4. DSC of AgHPW - SBA15 composites Fig. 5. DSC of AgHPW – TiO 2 composites