Hierarchical zirconium silicate macrospheres with diameters in the range 1.7 ÷ 1.8 mm were synthesized by spray gelling technique using a multi-templating method. Inexpensive, environmentally benign and easily accessible natural resources (yeast, gelatin, agar and chitosan) were used as templating agents. These materials were characterized by different complementary techniques: XRD, XPS, EDAX/SEM, FTIR and N₂ porosimetry. Infrared spectra of the adsorbed pyridine were used to investigate the type of the acid sites existing in the samples. Spherical zirconium silicate beads were tested as catalysts in the addition reaction of acrylic acid to epichlorohydrin. In order to evaluate the catalyst lifetime the zirconium silicate macrospheres were reused 10 times. No loss of the catalytic activity and no attrition of the macrospheres were noticed in these runs which prove that the zirconium silicate beads behave as an efficient and stable heterogeneous catalyst.

通过喷雾胶凝技术使用多模板方法合成了直径在1.7÷1.8 mm范围内的分层硅酸锆大球。廉价，环境友好且易于获取的自然资源（酵母，明胶，琼脂和壳聚糖）被用作模板剂。这些材料通过不同的互补技术进行了表征：XRD，XPS，EDAX / SEM，FTIR和N ₂孔隙率法。吸附吡啶的红外光谱用于研究样品中存在的酸性位点的类型。在丙烯酸​​与环氧氯丙烷的加成反应中，对球形硅酸锆珠进行了测试。为了评估催化剂寿命，硅酸锆大球被重复使用了10次。在这些实验中，没有发现催化活性的损失和大球的磨损，这证明硅酸锆珠粒是一种有效且稳定的非均相催化剂。