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New Journal of Chemistry

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New J. Chem., 2007, 31, 1907 - 1917, DOI: 10.1039/b711544j


MCM-41 silica monoliths with independent control of meso- and macroporosity

Jérôme Babin, Julien Iapichella, Benoît Lefèvre, Christine Biolley, Jean-Pierre Bellat, François Fajula and Anne Galarneau


Centimetre sized macroporous silica monoliths consisting of MCM-41 have been prepared by a two-step procedure allowing an independent control of the meso- and macro-porosity. In the first step a monolith with a macroporosity tailored between 2 and 20 µm is prepared under acidic medium by a phase separation, named spinodal decomposition, leading to a bicontinuous structure of a silica/polymer phase and a water phase. The monolith is then reacted in an alkaline solution of cetyltrimethyl ammonium to transform the silica skeleton into MCM-41 under conditions which preserve the original morphology and macroporosity of the material. The combination of spinodal decomposition and pseudomorphic transformation proves very efficient to precisely tune the textural characteristics of macroscopic objects.

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