A novel method for the synthesis of well-crystallized β-AlF3 with high surface area derived from γ-Al2O3

Well-crystallized β-AlF3 with high surface area was synthesized by a carbon template method. Porous γ-Al2O3 was filled with carbon and transformed into AlF3 by fluorination. After removing the carbon template by thermal combustion, the resulting β-AlF3 had a surface area of 114 m2 g−1. Temperatures for fluorination and thermal combustion were crucial for the phase composition of the resulting sample. The high surface area β-AlF3 was very active for dismutation of CF2Cl2 due to its large amount of surface acid sites.