Mesoporous Materials of the MCM Type: Synthesis, Application, use of Ionic Solids and Functionalization with Graphene: A Review

Abstract

The wide applicability of silica-based mesoporous molecular sieves in the most different scientific areas, such as catalysis, adsorption, drug delivery systems, sensors, CO2 capture, enzyme immobilization, so on, is justified by their unique textural and structural characteristics. These materials exhibit high porosity, high specific surface area, limited pore distribution and controllable morphology what makes them adaptable and versatile. This review will address the latest in relation to molecular sieves of the M41S family, as well as their synthesis routes, highlighting the role of ionic solids and ionic liquids as structure-directing agents, the influence of heteroatoms addition (M+/MCM), focusing on graphene incorporation (graphene/MCM), the means of characterization of these materials and their main applications. Considering the approaches that have been widely explored in the literature, it is safe to say that, depending on the synthesis route, these materials can be considered environmentally friendly, as it is possible to obtain them using clean reagents in one-pot syntheses. These materials already provide several solutions to nanoscale problems and its functionalization with graphene and the use of ionic solids and ionic liquids as SDA can further improve its performance.