Ultrasound-Assisted Fast Synthesis of Mesoporous Silica Spheres with High Specific Surface Area

Abstract

A fast method for synthesis of mesoporous silica spheres was developed by using ultrasound as driving power, polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan monolaurate as dispersant, tetraethoxysilane as silica source and octylamine as template. The as-prepared microspheres were characterized with field emitting scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetry, X-ray diffraction and nitrogen (N₂) adsorption/desorption measurements, respectively. The experimental results showed that polyoxyethylene(20) sorbitan monolaurate could obviously decrease the size range of the products, which possessed specific surface area of 1272.6 m²/g and narrow mesoporous distribution of about 0.5-2.5 nm. Moreover, the nanopores in the shell of mesoporous silica spheres became more and more unordered with the prolonging of the calcinating time.