Abstract
One of the major routes to synthesize macroporous α-Al2O3 is the sol-gel process in presence of templates. Templates include polymers as well as carboxylic acids, such as citric acid. By careful choice of the template, pore diameters can be adjusted between 110 nm and several µm. We report the successful establishment of plain short-chain dicarboxylic acids (DCA) as porogenes in the sol-gel synthesis of macroporous α-Al2O3. By this extension of the recently developed synthesis route, a very precise control of pore diameters is achieved, in addition to enhanced macropore volumes in α-Al2O3. The formation mechanism thereof is closely related to the one postulated for citric acid, as thermal analyses show. However, since branching in the DCA-linked alumina nuclei is not possible, close monomodal pore width distributions are attained, which are accompanied by enhanced pore volumes. This is a significant improvement in terms of controlled enhanced porosity in the synthesis of macroporous α-Al2O3.
Highlights
One of the major routes to synthesize macroporous α-Al2O3 is the sol-gel process in presence of templates
We recently reported a variation of the well-established PEO-templated synthesis with epoxide-mediated gelation in which we replaced the costly polymer by citric acid – a green, inexpensive, and readily available template[16]
We refrained from pursuing assays with dicarboxylic acids C7 and higher homologues.) More importantly, the general pore widening mechanism by DCA addition in the sol-gel process needs to be elucidated to explain the observed microstructural characteristics
Summary
One of the major routes to synthesize macroporous α-Al2O3 is the sol-gel process in presence of templates. We refrained from pursuing assays with dicarboxylic acids C7 and higher homologues.) More importantly, the general pore widening mechanism by DCA addition in the sol-gel process needs to be elucidated to explain the observed microstructural characteristics.
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