Rapid synthesis of morphology-controlled mesoporous silica nanoparticles from silica fume

Abstract

A very short-time synthesis of morphology-controlled MCM-41 molecular sieve was formulated by using industry by-product silica fume as the silica source. In this synthesis, only by regulating the dose of ethyl acetate, we can well-realize the silica nanoparticle morphological transformation from worm-like to sphere, and popcorn-like shapes. The structure and morphology of the as-fabricated silica nanoparticles were quantitatively investigated by powder X-ray diffraction, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Owing to the specific surface area and regular morphology, the bimodal mesoporous silica material MSF1 shows a better adsorption property for methylene blue. It was also demonstrated that it is possible to employ silica fume as an ideal silica source in 90min self-assemble synthesis for large scale production.