Hydrothermal Synthesis of Mesoporous Silica MCM-41 Using Commercial Sodium Silicate

Abstract

In this work, ordered mesoporous silica MCM-41 was prepared by hydrothermal synthesis using industrial-grade sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) as silica source, hexadecyltrimethyl-ammonium bromide (CTAB) as template agent and ethyl acetate as pH regulator. The influence of CTAB/SiO2 molar ratio, reaction time, aging temperature, and co-surfactant type on the structural and morphological properties of the obtained silica was studied. The roducts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms. Ordered mesoporous MCM-41 silica was obtained at 80 °C by using a range of CTAB/SiO2 molar ratio from 0.35 to 0.71 and reaction times up to 72 h and isopropanol (i-PrOH) as cosurfactant.