Current advances in the utility of functionalized SBA mesoporous silica for developing encapsulated nanocatalysts: state of the art

Abstract

The cavities of SBA mesoporous silica materials can be used as nanoreactors for embedding catalytic species such as nanoparticles, complexes and heteropolyacids etc. The encapsulated catalysts are renowned as superior catalytic systems regarding their catalytic activity, selectivity and reusability as well as suppressed leaching. An efficient method to improve the encapsulation of these catalysts, is in creating anchors for capturing catalytic species. It has been performed by functionalization of the surface of SBA mesoporous silica materials with various groups including sulfur, phosphorus and amine-based functional groups. The aim of this article is to review the recent advances (2014–2017) in the field of the utility of functionalized SBA for developing encapsulated catalysts. In most cases the reusability of the catalyst and the leaching of the catalytic active species were discussed to disclose the role of functionalized SBA in heterogenizing and suppressing the leaching. Moreover, to show the superiority of these developed encapsulated catalysts, with a couple of examples we compared their catalytic activities with those of the conventional ones.