Preparation and characterization of vinyl-functionalized mesoporous SBA-15 silica by a direct synthesis method

Abstract

Vinyl groups were used to functionalize the pore channels of mesoporous SBA-15 materials by the co-condensation of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and triethoxyvinylsilane (TEVS) in the presence of poly(ethylene glycol)–B-poly(propylene glycol)–B-poly(ethylene glycol) (P123) surfactants under acidic conditions. The final materials were investigated in detail by means of FT-IR, XRD, TEM, solid state NMR and N 2 adsorption, in order to study the effect of vinyl concentration on their mesoscopic order and pore structure. The results show that vinyl groups are attached covalently to the pore wall of SBA-15 after modification. The mesoscopic architecture almost remains intact upon functionalization, with only a minor decrease of the intensity of (110) diffractions for the 20 mol% TEVS-functionalized samples, which still preserve a desirable pore structure, with a surface area of 883.7 m 2/g, a pore volume of 0.98 cm 3/g and a mean pore size of 4.4 nm.