MCM-41 has been hydrothermally synthesized using fumed silica (SiO₂) and silatrane [Si(TEA)₂] as silica sources. Pd nanoparticles were successfully impregnated to the mesoporous MCM-41 supports. Soybean oil methyl ester was partially hydrogenated by the Pd/MCM-41-SiO₂ and Pd/MCM-41-silatrane catalysts under a mild condition (low temperature and pressure). Both catalysts could rapidly and selectively convert the polyunsaturated fatty acid methyl esters (C18:3 and C18:2) to monounsaturated fatty acid methyl esters (C18:1) at 100 °C and 0.4 MPa H₂ within 4 h. The results verified that the Pd/MCM-41-silatrane catalyst with the greater surface of Pd active sites had higher catalytic activity, representing in term of turnover frequency (TOF), in partial hydrogenation than Pd/MCM-41-SiO₂ under both C18:2 conversions of 40% and 60%. Even if the lower selectivity toward cis-C18:1 was obtained for the former. In addition to the better stable structure of MCM-41-silatrane support as compared to MCM-41-SiO₂ support, silatrane precursor is more favorable to diminish the extent of complete hydrogenation than fumed silica as it provided the lower index. Even though, this silica precursor sues for more synthetic step. Due to the higher oxidative stability of Pd/MCM-41-SiO₂, MCM-41-SiO₂ support was further studied for the later research. When varying the Pd loadings in 0.5–2 wt.% on MCM-41-SiO₂ support, the Pd(2)/MCM-41-SiO₂ catalyst gave the highest performance (TOF) whether the complete hydrogenation was concurrently accompanied. Results signify that the nature of the silica source and the Pd concentration modified the surface active sites and size distribution of metallic particles, which determine the catalytic reactivity and selectivity.

MCM-41是利用气相法二氧化硅（SiO ₂）和硅烷基[Si（TEA）₂ ]作为二氧化硅源进行水热合成的。Pd纳米颗粒已成功浸渍到中孔MCM-41载体上。在温和的条件下（低温和低压），Pd / MCM-41-SiO ₂和Pd / MCM-41-硅杂环丁烷催化剂将大豆油甲酯部分氢化。两种催化剂都可以在100°C和0.4 MPa H _{2的条件下}将多不饱和脂肪酸甲酯（C18：3和C18：2）快速选择性地转化为单不饱和脂肪酸甲酯（C18：1）。4小时内 结果证实，在两种条件下，Pd / MCM-41-Silatrane催化剂在部分加氢时在部分氢化中具有较高的催化活性（以周转率（TOF）表示）比Pd / MCM-41-SiO _2高。 C18：2的转化率分别为40％和60％。即使前者对顺式-C18：1的选择性较低。与MCM-41-SiO ₂载体相比，MCM-41-硅氧杂环丁烷载体具有更好的稳定结构，与气相法二氧化硅相比，硅氧烷前体更有利于减少完全氢化的程度，因为它提供的指数较低。即使这种二氧化硅前体适合于更多的合成步骤。由于Pd / MCM-41-SiO ₂具有较高的氧化稳定性，因此MCM-41-SiO₂支持被进一步研究，用于以后的研究。当以0.5–2 wt。％的MCM-41-SiO ₂载体上的Pd负载量变化时，无论同时进行完全氢化，Pd（2）/ MCM-41-SiO ₂催化剂均具有最高的性能（TOF）。结果表明，二氧化硅源的性质和Pd的浓度改变了金属颗粒的表面活性位点和尺寸分布，从而决定了催化剂的反应活性和选择性。