Synthesis of amino-functionalized mesoporous silica–zirconia mixed oxide using sodium silicate and zirconium carbonate complex

Abstract

Amino-functionalized mesostructured silica–zirconia mixed oxide has been synthesized through a very convenient one step synthesis route using water soluble sodium silicate, zirconium(IV) carbonate complex and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane in the presence of anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate under basic condition, exhibiting excellent adsorption properties towards arsenate ions. Moderately high surface area has been achieved using Si/Zr ratio 2.06 and 10 mol% 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane with respect to the amount of silica. The presence of mixed oxide framework is clearly visible from the peak shift of Si–O–Si stretching frequency in FTIR spectra. The S BET and pore volume of the composite was found to be 420 m 2 g −1 and 0.4396 ml g −1 respectively with uniform and narrow pore size distribution centered at 42.8 Å. The mesoporous composite showed good absorption properties towards arsenate anion and anionic dye molecules.