Silica gel

About: Silica gel is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 22313 publications have been published within this topic receiving 325516 citations. The topic is also known as: Amorphous silica & Precipitated amorphous silica.

Apatite formation on silica gel in simulated body fluid: Its dependence on structures of silica gels prepared in different media

Abstract: It has been shown that the prerequisite for glasses and glass-ceramics to bond to living bone is the formation of a layer of biologically active bonelike apatite on their surfaces. The hydrated silica formed on the surfaces of glasses and glass-ceramics plays an important role in nucleating the apatite. In the present study, the structure of the hydrated silica responsible for the apatite nucleation was investigated in an accellular simulated body fluid with ion concentrations nearly equal to those of human blood plasma. Three kinds of porous silica gels were prepared by hydrolysis and polycondensation of tetraethoxysilane in pure water or in aqueous solution containing polyethylene glycol or polyacrylic acid. The silica gels prepared in aqueous solution containing polyethylene glycol or polyacrylic acid had micron-size interconnected pores, whereas the gel prepared in pure water did not. All the gels contained a large volume of nanometer-size pores, almost the same amounts of silanol groups and D2 defect, and showed a high dissolution rate of the silica. Despite this, only the gel prepared in the solution containing polyethylene glycol formed the apatite on its surface in the simulated body fluid. This indicates that only a certain type of structural unit of the silanol group is responsible for the apatite nucleation.

Acidity and Hydrophobicity of TS-1

Abstract: This report investigates the causes of the unique properties and reactivity of the titanium silicalite TS-1, a commercial zeolite containing 1% Ti by weight. The combined analysis of calorimetric and adsorption data, cal−ad, for the reaction of TS-1 with pyridine shows the absence of the strong acid site found in HZSM-5 and the presence of only 0.07 mmol g-1 of a −15.1 kcal mol-1 hydrogen-bonding site. Titrations with 2,6-lutidine indicate the same number of hydrogen-bonding sites with a lower enthalpy (−9.8 kcal mol-1). The magnitude of these enthalpies indicate that the acceptor sites are hydrogen-bonding sites that are comparable in acidity to the strongest sites on silica gel. The small amounts of these sites, 0.07 mmol g-1 compared to 0.8 mmol g-1 in silica gel and 0.5 mmol g-1 for the hydrogen-bonding sites of HZSM-5, account for the lower affinity of TS-1 for water. The absence of strong acidity prevents epoxide ring opening and explains the utility of TS-1 in epoxidation. Comparison of the results...