Journal of Inorganic Materials

• Research Paper • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Synthesis of Mesoporous Silica Spheres by Using Neutral-cationic Surfactant and Semi-batch Growth

QIU Jian-Quan, ZHAO Xiang, JIN Min-Chao, CAI Qiang, LI Heng-De   

  1. Department of Material Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials of Ministry of Education, Beijing 100084, China
  • Received:2005-07-04 Revised:2005-08-29 Published:2006-05-20 Online:2006-05-20

Abstract: A one-step synthesis of mono-dispersed mesoporous silica spheres by using the mixed surfactants CTAB and dodecylamine proceeded with the hydrolysis and condensation of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) in a mixture of alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, water, and ammonia as a catalyst. The silica spheres have high specific
surface area and can be used as a good substrate in high performance liquid
chromatography (HPLC). The size of 0.2~1.5μm and morphology of the silica spheres can be controlled by varying the proportion of surfactant and co-solvent. The prepared silica spheres can be enlarged to the maximum diameter 3μm with a seeded growth method in a semi-batch reacting system. Based on the experiments above, several mechanisms were discussed on the growth
process of mesoporous silica spheres in the synthesis.

Key words: mesoporous, silica spheres, surfactant, semi-batch

CLC Number: