A molecular sieve catalyst Zr-SBA-15 was synthesized by the hydrothermal one-step method using P123

TEOS and ZrONO3·xH2O as template agent

silicon and zirconium sources

respectively. The Zr-SBA-15 catalyst was characterized by XRD

BET

ICP

pyridine-FTIR and NH3-TPD

respectively

and used to mainly synthesize the ortho isomer of bisphenol F from phenol and formaldehyde. The results showed that the pore diameter of the prepared Zr-SBA-15 catalyst was about 6.6 nm and the distribution of pore diameter was uniform. After Zr incorporated into SBA-15

it had a high proportion of Lewis acid sites favouring the forming of the ortho isomer of bisphenol F with high catalytic activity. When the molar ratio of Si/Zr was 20

the Zr-SBA-15 catalyst exhibited the best catalytic activity with 83.5% of yield and 92.5% of ortho isomer of bisphenol F. The optimized reaction conditions were obtained as the phenol/formaldehyde molar ratio 30

the catalyst/formaldehyde mass ratio 1

reaction temperature 90℃ and reaction time 240 min. The reaction mechanism for high selective synthesis of the ortho isomer of bisphenol F was also proposed.