Abstract
Porous silica gels with high surface area were prepared by calcination of silica/poly(tetramethylene oxide) (PTMO) hybrid network materials. The variation of the surface area of these silica gels with PTMO/silica composition and molecular weight of PTMO was investigated. Surface area analysis showed that for all oligomeric molecular weights of PTMO, high values in the range 700−1000 m2 g-1 could be obtained. The optimum PTMO/TEOS weight ratio was 30−50. Pore size analysis indicated that samples with high surface areas were mesoporous, while samples with low or medium surface areas were microporous. This unusual result was obtained as a consequence of the particle size of the materials, small for the high surface area materials and large for the low surface area materials. The hysteresis in the adsorption−desorption isotherms indicated that the pores were cylindrical in shape.
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