Synthesis, structure and adsorption properties of nanoporous SBA-15 materials with framework and surface functionalities

Highly ordered SBA-15 nanoporous silica containing ethylene, phenylene bridges or/and amine, thiol, vinyl and phenyl surface groups were synthesized by using amphiphilic block copolymer as the structure-directing agent. The XRD data shows high degree of the order of the final structures. Obtained materials have well-developed porous structure—values of specific surface area are in the range 700–1050 m²/g and the sizes of cylindrical mesopores are in the range 6.5–9.5 nm. It was determined that size of the mesopores strongly depends even on small amounts of co-monomers co-condensing with TEOS. A new technique to introduce some amount of pendant amine groups by co-condensation of proper monomers has been proposed. Tetragonal structure was obtained when small amount of vinyl groups was introduced to the system. A new approach of determining pore size based only on the XRD measurements was compared with KJS method, confirming full usefulness of the former for calculation of the size of mesopores in SBA-15 materials. Dedicated to Professor Mietek Jaroniec on the occasion of his 60th birthday.