Hierarchically mesoporous silica materials prepared from the uniaxially stretchedpolypropylene membrane and surfactant templates

Abstract

Hierarchically mesoporous silica materials with a bimodal distribution were template-preparedfrom uniaxially stretched polypropylene membrane in the presence of a surfactant via asol–gel process. Their regularity and morphologies were characterized by transmissionelectron microscopy (TEM), x-ray diffraction and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surfacearea analysis. The larger channel pores formed by removing the microfibrils of uniaxiallystretched polypropylene membrane have a broad pore size distribution, and their size isaround 13 nm. In contrast, the smaller mesopores formed by surfactant templates have anarrow distribution; their size is about 3.9 nm. The size of the smaller pores could be tunedfrom 2 to 6 nm by selecting different surfactants and by changing the concentration ofreactants.