Molecules, Vol. 25, Pages 4909: Controlling Particle Morphology and Pore Size in the Synthesis of Ordered Mesoporous Materials

Molecules, Vol. 25, Pages 4909: Controlling Particle Morphology and Pore Size in the Synthesis of Ordered Mesoporous Materials
Molecules doi: 10.3390/molecules25214909
Authors:
Yaregal Awoke
Yonas Chebude
Isabel Díaz

Ordered mesoporous materials have attracted considerable attention due to their potential applications in catalysis, adsorption, and separation technologies, as well as biomedical applications. In the present manuscript, we aim at a rational design to obtain the desired surface functionality (Ti and/or hydrophobic groups) while obtaining short channels (short diffusion paths) and large pore size (>10 nm). Santa Barbara Amorphous material SBA-15 and periodic mesoporous organosilica PMO materials are synthesized using Pluronic PE 10400 (P104) surfactant under mild acidic conditions to obtain hexagonal platelet-like particles with very short mesochannels (300–450 nm). The use of expanders, such as 1, 3, 5-trimethylbenzene (TMB) and 1, 3, 5-triisopropylbenzene (TIPB) were tested in order to increase the pore size. TMB yielded in the formation of vesicles in all the syntheses attempted, whereas P104 combined with TIPB resulted both in expanded (E) E-SBA-15 and E-PMO with 12.3 nm pore size short channel particles in both cases. Furthermore, the synthesis method was expanded to the incorporation of small amount of Ti via co-condensation method using titanocene as titanium source. As a result, Ti-E-SBA-15 was obtained with 15.5 nm po...

Source: Molecules - October 23, 2020 Category: Chemistry Authors: Yaregal Awoke Yonas Chebude Isabel D íaz Tags: Article Source Type: research