Use of amphiphilic triblock copolymers to direct the organization of polymerizing silica species has resulted in the preparation of well-ordered hexagonal mesoporous silica structures (SBA-15) with uniform pore sizes up to approximately 300 angstroms. The SBA-15 materials are synthesized in acidic media to produce highly ordered, two-dimensional hexagonal (space group p6mm) silica-block copolymer mesophases. Calcination at 500°C gives porous structures with unusually large interlattice d spacings of 74.5 to 320 angstroms between the (100) planes, pore sizes from 46 to 300 angstroms, pore volume fractions up to 0.85, and silica wall thicknesses of 31 to 64 angstroms. SBA-15 can be readily prepared over a wide range of uniform pore sizes and pore wall thicknesses at low temperature (35° to 80°C), using a variety of poly(alkylene oxide) triblock copolymers and by the addition of cosolvent organic molecules. The block copolymer species can be recovered for reuse by solvent extraction with ethanol or removed by heating at 140°C for 3 hours, in both cases, yielding a product that is thermally stable in boiling water.

Triblock copolymer syntheses of mesoporous silica with periodic 50 to 300 angstrom pores

A family of highly ordered mesoporous (20−300 A) silica structures have been synthesized by the use of commercially available nonionic alkyl poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) oligomeric surfactants and poly(alkylene oxide) block copolymers in acid media. Periodic arrangements of mescoscopically ordered pores with cubic Im3m, cubic Pm3m (or others), 3-d hexagonal (P63/mmc), 2-d hexagonal (p6mm), and lamellar (Lα) symmetries have been prepared. Under acidic conditions at room temperature, the nonionic oligomeric surfactants frequently form cubic or 3-d hexagonal mesoporous silica structures, while the nonionic triblock copolymers tend to form hexagonal (p6mm) mesoporous silica structures. A cubic mesoporous silica structure (SBA-11) with Pm3m diffraction symmetry has been synthesized in the presence of C16H33(OCH2CH2)10OH (C16EO10) surfactant species, while a 3-d hexagonal (P63/mmc) mesoporous silica structure (SBA-12) results when C18EO10 is used. Surfactants with short EO segments tend to form lamellar mesost...

Nonionic Triblock and Star Diblock Copolymer and Oligomeric Surfactant Syntheses of Highly Ordered, Hydrothermally Stable, Mesoporous Silica Structures

On the Controllable Soft-Templating Approach to Mesoporous Silicates

A new application of MCM-41 mesoporous materials has been developed. Two kinds of surfactants, C16TAB and C12TAB, have been employed to get different pore sizes. The samples were disk-shaped conformed before and after charging with ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory drug. In all the cases the weight percent ratio of drug/MCM-41 was 30%. The drug release plots show a different behavior depending on the method for charging the drug in the material but not on the employed surfactant.

A New Property of MCM-41: Drug Delivery System

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Chemical strategies to design textured materials: from microporous and mesoporous oxides to nanonetworks and hierarchical structures.

Multinuclear (2H, 13C, 29Si, 81Br) magnetic resonance spectroscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering, and polarized optical microscopy techniques have been used to investigate molecular and mesoscopic organization in silicate−surfactant lyotropic liquid crystals with hexagonal and lamellar morphologies under highly alkaline conditions. Such systems cooperatively self-assemble following the addition of a basic aqueous solution containing anionic silicate oligomers (e.g., double-four-ring species) to an isotropic micellar solution of cationic surfactant molecules (e.g., cetyltrimethylammonium bromide). Important similarities and differences are shown to exist between multicomponent silicate−surfactant and conventional binary lyotropic liquid crystals. Under highly alkaline conditions, the silicate−surfactant systems possess the characteristics of ordinary lyotropic liquid crystalline systems, though the balance of forces underlying their self-assembly is complicated by the richness of the aqueous silicate chemi...

A. G. Oertli

Papers

Alkaline Lyotropic Silicate−Surfactant Liquid Crystals