Hierarchically Porous Oxides, Hybrids and Polymers via Sol-gel Accompanied by Phase Separation

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn various crosslinking systems containing metal oxides, organo-siloxane polymers and pure hydrocarbons, monolithic materials with hierarchical well-defined macropores and controlled mesopores have been synthesized. Synthetic progress in alkoxy-derived macroporous silica lead to the preparation of long-range ordered mesoporous skeletons in well-defined macroporous framework. Alkylene-bridged silicon alkoxides can also be prepared into similarly hierarchical porous structures with broadened variations in framework morphology. Macro-mesoporous alkoxy-derived pure titania and zirconia have been prepared using hydrochloric acid – mediated processes. Compared with those prepared from colloidal dispersions, alkoxy-derived macroporous titania exhibited much higher mechanical strength. Titania monolith is a promising candidate as a separation medium to discriminate phosphorylated compounds in a liquid chromatography mode. Pure alumina macroporous monolith has been first synthesized from aluminum salt using propylene glycol as a proton scavenger to thrust the solution pH from acidic into neutral conditions. Alumina-based complex oxides such as garnets and spinels can also be prepared in pure phases. Polymerization and phase separation in organic crosslinker system was also controlled to obtain well-defined co-continuous macro-frameworks instead of those composed of aggregated particles. These examples demonstrate the versatility of using phase-separation in gelling systems to obtain well-defined macroporous structures.