Issue 15, 2013

Detemplation of soft mesoporous silicananoparticles with structural preservation

Abstract

A mild protocol that allows the template removal of soft un-aged silica nanoparticles was investigated. After oxidizing the organic template by Fenton chemistry, a good structural preservation is only achieved when the material is equilibrated and dried in a low-surface tension solvent. This avoids excessive capillary stress induced by the high surface tension of water, a major component in the Fenton reaction medium. The Fenton reaction should be carried out under mild conditions as well; otherwise the sample deteriorates by extensive hydrolysis, and capillary stress, and the structural ordering diminishes severely. We propose employing 10 ppm Fe concentration at 70 °C for 24 h for the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide template. The proposed protocol involves 2 steps resulting in an overall significantly higher pore volume attributed to the wider pores and limited particle agglomeration, while the calcined counterpart evidences aggregation and loss of the hexagonal ordering. n-BuOH exchange is unnecessary when the mesophase is stabilized by ageing, as the structure resists the water capillary stress.

Graphical abstract: Detemplation of soft mesoporous silica nanoparticles with structural preservation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
25 Nov 2012
Accepted
07 Feb 2013
First published
05 Mar 2013

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2013,1, 4747-4753

Detemplation of soft mesoporous silica nanoparticles with structural preservation

L. L. Pérez, M. J. Ortiz-Iniesta, Z. Zhang, I. Agirrezabal-Telleria, M. Santes, H. J. Heeres and I. Melián-Cabrera, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2013, 1, 4747 DOI: 10.1039/C3TA01240A

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