maryam mashhadinezhad was born in rasht, guilan, i. r. iran. she received her b. sc in chemistry in 2009 from the university of guilan and her m.sc. in organic chemistry in 2011 from the same university. she is studying under the supervision of dr. farhad shirini for her ph. d. her research interests include the use of heterogeneous catalysts in organic reactions.

In this work we report the polymerization behaviour of natural clays (montmorillonites, MMT) as activating supports. These materials have been modified by treatment with different aluminium compounds in order to obtain enriched aluminium clays and to modify the global Brönsted/Lewis acidity. As a consequence, the intrinsic structural properties of the starting materials have been changed. These...