Ordered benzene–silica hybrids with molecular-scale periodicity in the walls and different mesopore sizes

Abstract

Mesoporous benzene–silica hybrid materials have been obtained via surfactant-mediated synthesis using alkyltrimethylammonium surfactants with alkyl chain lengths from 14 to 18. By combining N2 adsorption–desorption experiments and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis we showed that these samples exhibited mesopore sizes in the range 3.2 to 3.9 nm and that the molecular-scale periodicity in the walls of these materials is maintained. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) have also been used to characterise the structure and stability of the samples.