Synthesis and characterization of mesoporous silica from beach sands as silica source

Abstract

Abstract The amorphous mesoporous silica was successfully synthesized from beach sand sources. Dodecyl amine, DDA, was used as a mesoporous template under a sol-gel reaction. The synthesized mesoporous silica has a high specific surface area 766.40 m 2 /g, pore volume 0.51 cc/g, average pore diameter in mesoporous range 3.04 nm, and relatively high acidity value 0.88 mmol/g. It was found that rotation speed during the addition of DDA affects greatly the porosity formation, with higher rotation speed favors porosity formation.