Pore Structure Control of Silica Gels Based on Phase Separation

Abstract

In the alkoxy-derived sol-gel system, various macroporous morphologies can be obtained by inducing the phase separation parallel to the sol-gel transition. This principle of macroporous morphology control can be best applied to pure silica and silica-based multicomponent oxide systems. The earlier the phase separation takes place than the sol-gel transition, the larger the characteristic sizes of pores and gel skeletons become. The time resolved light scattering measurements revealed that the morphology formation process exhibits the features of spinodal decomposition and that the final gel morphology is determined by the competitive kinetics between the domain coarsening and the structure freezing by sol-gel transition. The mesopore structure of such macroporous gel skeletons could be easily tailored by the solvent exchange procedures. Silica gels with controlled macropores and mesopores were successfully applied as a material for the continuous rod type column for high performance liquid chromatography.