Synthesis and properties of 1,3,5-benzene periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO): novel aromatic PMO with three point attachments and unique thermal transformations

A new aromatic periodic mesoporous organosilica material containing benzene functional groups that are symmetrically integrated with three silicon atoms in an organosilica mesoporous framework is reported. The material has a high surface area, well-ordered mesoporous structure and thermally stable framework aromatic groups. The functional aromatic moieties were observed to undergo sequential thermal transformation from a three to two and then to a one point attachment within the framework upon continuous thermolysis under air before eventually being converted to periodic mesoporous silica devoid of aromatic groups at high temperatures and longer pyrolysis times. The mesoporosity of the material was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and nitrogen porosimetry, whereas the presence and transformation of the aromatic groups in the walls of the materials were characterized by solid-state NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and thermogravimetric analysis. The attachment of a benzene ring symmetrically onto three siloxanes of the framework was used advantageously as a cross-linker to enhance the thermal stability of the organic group. Some of these properties are investigated in comparison with other aromatic PMOs that have only two point attachments and an amorphous phenylsilica gel that has only one point attachment. The successful synthesis of the first aromatic PMO with its organic group attached within the framework through more than two points is an important step toward the synthesis of PMOs having organic groups with more complex and multiple attachments within the framework.     

Modification of Surface and Structural Properties of Ordered Mesoporous Silicates

Two simple modification methods for ordered mesoporous silicas were examined and compared. MCM-41 molecular sieve was physically coated with 4-cyano-4-biphenyl [4(4-pentenyloxy)]benzoate (CBPB) and chemically modified using trimethylethoxysilane. The structural and surface properties of the obtained materials were characterized using elemental analysis, thermogravimetry and nitrogen adsorption over a wide pressure range.It was shown that the pore size of the MCM-41 material was not decreased significantly after the coating procedure, even for high loadings of CBPB. Moreover, low pressure adsorption measurements indicated that significant fractions of the MCM-41 surface were not covered by CBPB, even for high CBPB loadings, which suggests that the attained coverage may be very nonuniform. The chemical bonding procedure led to a marked decrease in the pore size and change of surface properties.It was demonstrated that nitrogen adsorption measurements provide a means of a thorough characterization of modified MCM-41 materials, allowing to estimate the surface area, pore volume and pore size distribution. Moreover, low pressure adsorption data can be used to qualitatively or semiquantitatively assess the surface coverage of the coated/bonded organic groups, which may be used to estimate the uniformity of the coverage and therefore, the usefulness of the modification procedure.     

Improvement of the Derjaguin-Broekhoff-de Boer theory for the capillary condensation/evaporation of nitrogen in spherical cavities and its application for the pore size analysis of silicas with ordered cagelike mesopores

In a previous work, we proposed an improvement of the Derjaguin-Broekhoff-de Boer (DBdB) theory for capillary condensation/evaporation in open-ended cylindrical mesopores. In this paper, we report a further extension of this approach to the capillary condensation/evaporation of nitrogen in siliceous spherical cavities. The main idea of this improvement is to employ the Gibbs-Tolman-Koenig-Buff equation to predict the variation of the surface tension in spherical mesopores. In addition, the statistical film thickness (the so-called t-curve), which is evaluated accurately on the basis of adsorption isotherms measured for MCM-41 materials, is used instead of the originally proposed t-curve to take into account the excess chemical potential due to the surface forces. It is shown that the aforementioned modifications of the original DBdB theory that was refined by Ravikovitch and Neimark have significant implications for the pore size analysis of cagelike mesoporous silicas. To verify the proposed improvement of the DBdB pore size analysis (IDBdB), two series of FDU-1 samples, which are well-defined cagelike mesoporous materials (composed of siliceous spherical cavities interconnected by short necks), were used for the evaluation of the pore size distributions (PSDs). The correlation between the spinodal condensation point in the spherical pores predicted by the nonlocal density functional theory (NDFT) developed by Ravikovitch and Neimark and that predicted by the IDBdB theory is very good in the whole range of mesopores. This feature is mirrored to the realistic PSD characterized by the bimodal structure of pores computed from the IDBdB theory. As in the case of open-ended cylindrical pores, the improvement of the classical DBdB theory preserves its simplicity and simultaneously ensures a significant improvement of the pore size analysis, which is confirmed by the independent estimation of the average pore size by the NDFT and the powder X-ray diffraction method.     

Synthesis of mesoporous carbons using ordered and disordered mesoporous silica templates and polyacrylonitrile as carbon precursor

Mesoporous carbons were synthesized from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) using ordered and disordered mesoporous silica templates and were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), powder X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption, and thermogravimetry. The pores of the silica templates were infiltrated with carbon precursor (PAN) via polymerization of acrylonitrile from initiation sites chemically bonded to the silica surface. This polymerization method is expected to allow for a uniform filling of the template with PAN and to minimize the introduction of nontemplated PAN, thus mitigating the formation of nontemplated carbon. PAN was stabilized by heating to 573 K under air and carbonized under N2 at 1073 K. The resulting carbons exhibited high total pore volumes (1.5-1.8 cm3 g(-1)), with a primary contribution of the mesopore volume and with relatively low microporosity. The carbons synthesized using mesoporous templates with a 2-dimensional hexagonal structure (SBA-15 silica) and a face-centered cubic structure (FDU-1 silica) exhibited narrow pore size distributions (PSDs), whereas the carbon synthesized using disordered silica gel template had broader PSD. TEM showed that the SBA-15-templated carbon was composed of arrays of long, straight, or curved nanorods aligned in 2-D hexagonal arrays. The carbon replica of FDU-1 silica appeared to be composed of ordered arrays of spheres. XRD provided evidence of some degree of ordering of graphene sheets in the carbon frameworks. Elemental analysis showed that the carbons contain an appreciable amount of nitrogen. The use of our novel infiltration method and PAN as a carbon precursor allowed us to obtain ordered mesoporous carbons (OMCs) with (i) very high mesopore volume, (ii) low microporosity, (iii) low secondary mesoporosity, (iv) large pore diameter (8-12 nm), and (v) semi-graphitic framework, which represent a desirable combination of features that has not been realized before for OMCs.     

Metamorphosis of ordered mesopores to micropores: periodic silica with unprecedented loading of pendant reactive organic groups transforms to periodic microporous silica with tailorable pore size

Ordered porous silicas with unprecedented loadings of pendant vinyl groups have been synthesized via co-condensation of tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and triethoxyvinylsilane (TEVS) under basic conditions in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium surfactant. The resulting organosilicate-surfactant composites exhibited at least one low-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) peak up to the TEVS:TEOS molar ratio of 7:3 (70% TEVS loading) in the synthesis gel. The surfactant was removed from these composites without any structural collapse. Nitrogen adsorption provided strong evidence of the presence of uniformly sized pores and the lack of phase separation up to TEVS:TEOS ratios as high as 13:7 (65% TEVS loading), whereas (29)Si MAS NMR and high-resolution thermogravimetry showed essentially quantitative incorporation of the organosilane. Thus, a hitherto unachieved loading level for pendant groups, considered by many to be impossible to achieve for stable organosilicas because of the expected framework connectivity constraints, has been obtained. The resulting vinyl-functionalized silicas exhibited gradually decreasing pore diameter (from 2.8 to 1.7 nm for TEVS loadings of 25-65%) and pore volume as the loading of pendant groups increased, but the specific surface area was relatively constant. Because of the reactivity of vinyl groups, ordered silicas with very high loadings of these groups are expected to be robust starting materials for the synthesis of other organic-functionalized ordered microporous materials. Herein, we demonstrate that these starting materials can also be transformed via calcination into ordered microporous silicas with pore diameters tailorable from 2.5 to as little as 1.4 nm simply by using an appropriate loading of the vinyl-functionalized precursor. This ease of the micropore size adjustment and the attained degree of structural ordering (as judged from XRD) have not been reported before. The novel ordered microporous materials reported herein are promising as adsorbents and catalyst supports.     

Nitrogen Adsorption Study of MCM-41 Molecular Sieves Synthesized Using Hydrothermal Restructuring

Nitrogen desorption scanning hysteresis loops (DSHLs) for large-pore MCM-41 silicas (pore diameter from 4.0 to 6.5 nm) are reported for the first time. DSHLs for MCM-41 were compared with those of conventional mesoporous silicas and no appreciable differences were found, although hysteresis loops and DSHLs for the latter were usually broader. Since desorption behavior of conventional porous silicas is appreciably influenced by pore connectivity, the observed similarity in hysteresis behavior suggests single-pore blocking effects for MCM-41 due to variation of pore diameter along its nonintersecting channels. It was also shown that the steepness of nitrogen desorption branches at relative pressures close to 0.4 often results from proximity of the lower pressure limit of adsorption-desorption irreversibility and consequently it is not justified to consider it as an indication of narrow pore size distribution. Thus, application of desorption data in calculations of pore size distributions may be grossly misleading.     

Novel pitch-based carbons with bimodal distribution of uniform mesopores

A new method is proposed for the synthesis of pitch-based carbons with bimodal distribution of uniform mesopores formed by co-imprinting of spherical silica colloids and hexagonally ordered mesoporous particles of SBA-15 into mesophase pitch particles and subsequent silica dissolution.     

Bonus or flat wage? An experiment into the principal-agent problem

We conduct a simple principal-agent experiment in order to find the effects of information asymmetry on compensation. Our aim is the analysis of the appropriate compensation and its impact on employee’s effort. Furthermore we want to compare the offered compensation and the supplied effort in the version without communication and we want to know whether the experimental observations are consistent with the theoretical considerations.The experimenters found out that compensations observed during the experiment were different from those suggested by the theory and although they were theoretically not enough to induce high effort, we could observe high performance supplied by the agents.