Mesoporous silica spheres from colloids

A novel method has been developed to synthesize mesoporous silica spheres using commercial silica colloids (SNOWTEX) as precursors and electrolytes (ammonium nitrate and sodium chloride) as destabilizers. Crosslinked polyacrylamide hydrogel was used as a temporary barrier to obtain dispersible spherical mesoporous silica particles. The influences of synthesis conditions including solution composition and calcination temperature on the formation of the mesoporous silica particles were systematically investigated. The structure and morphology of the mesoporous silica particles were characterized via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and N2 sorption technique. Mesoporous silica particles with particle diameters ranging from 0.5 to 1.6 μm were produced whilst the BET surface area was in the range of 31-123 m2 g-1. Their pore size could be adjusted from 14.1 to 28.8 nm by increasing the starting particle diameter from 20-30 nm up to 70-100 nm. A simple and cost effective method is reported that should open up new opportunities for the synthesis of scalable host materials with controllable structures.