| Isobutane/alkene alkylations catalyzed by acid catalysts have received much attention, which is the main approach for producing high-octane-index gasoline. Liquid acid catalysts, such as H2SO4 and HF, are often used in the conventional alkylation processing technology. Nonetheless, those liquid acids are unpopular because of their corrosiveness their toxicity. For these reasons, there is a genuine desire to develop environmental friendly and acceptable solid catalysts. In this paper, series of compound oxides were prepared employing microemulsion under the hydrothermal conditions, and their catalytic performance in the isobutane/ butylene alkylation was studied.Solid acid catalysts WO3/ZrO2 and MoO3/ZrO2 were prepared in the quaternary microemulsion, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)/water/hexane/n-pentanol under the hydrothermal conditions and structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR), N2 adsorption-desorption and transmission electron microscope (TEM) techniques. XRD patterns show that the ZrO2 samples calcined at 650℃are of monoclinic symmetry. When WO3 and MoO3 load on ZrO2, the samples are of tetragonal phase,which is very important for the formation of acid center. The characteristic peaks of T-ZrO2 could be found in the IR spectra. The N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms indicate that the samples have large surface area, large pore volume, uniform pore diameter, and the pores indeed exist in the samples. According to TEM, the ZrO2 nanoparticles present a square shape, and the samples loaded WO3 and MoO3 have a sphere like morphology. The acid test suggests that the acidity highly increased after calcinations.All samples have been tested as catalysts for production of alkylates. The experimental results indicate that the catalysts have highly activity and long life. However, there are many by-products owing to the uneven acid center in the surface and the complexity of the alkylations.
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