Abstract
Earlier, we have published a paper on the preparation of silica sphere using propanol as cosurfactant. We report here a highly cost-effective method of preparation of mesoporous silica spheres with core shell structure using sodium silicate as silica precursor, cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as surfactant, and methanol as cosurfactant. Thus after removal of the template by dissolutions or/and activation at higher temperature, mesoporous silica spheres with core shell structure were obtained. The products prepared with methanol to CTAB molar ratio 8.5 : 1 were confirmed to give best results. All the spherical products have very large surface area (∼589–1044 m2/g), pore volume (∼0.98–1.41 cm3/g), and ordered pore structure.
Highlights
The synthesis of ordered mesoporous metal oxide using surfactant templating was first reported by Kresge et al and Beck et al in 1992 [1, 2]
We report here a cost effective, simple, and convenient method for the preparation of well-ordered hollow mesoporous silica spheres taking cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and methanol as templating agents and sodium silicate as silica source
The synthesized silica particles with methanol : CTAB molar ratio below 10 : 1 show core shell structure which was evidenced from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and TEM micrographs
Summary
The synthesis of ordered mesoporous metal oxide using surfactant templating was first reported by Kresge et al and Beck et al in 1992 [1, 2]. Since ordered mesoporous metal oxides have been the topic of rapid discovery in material chemistry, catalysis, chemical sensing, and separations [3, 4]. Silica spheres of hollow morphologies have attracted much attention due to their potential applications in drug-delivery, adsorption, and catalysis [10]. Several chemical and physicochemical methods have been used to synthesize hollow spheres, including emulsion phase separation techniques, emulsion interfacial polymerization, and templating colloidal particle techniques [12]. Li et al [13] reported the isolation of hollow silica spheres taking calcium carbonate nanoparticles as templating agent and sodium silicate as silica source for drug delivery applications. Naik and Sokolov [15] reported the preparation of nanoporous silica spheres at room temperature using sodium metasilicate as silica precursor and CTACl as structure directing agent
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