Scale-up low-cost synthesis of bimodal mesoporous silicas

Porous pure and doped silicas with pore sizes at two length scales (meso/macroporous) have been prepared through a large scale one-pot surfactant assisted reproducible procedure by using a simple template agent and starting from non-expensive sodium silicate as silicon source. Together with the relative low-cost of the reagents we have used, the simplicity of this method, which moreover is scalable and provides high yields, could be a strong argument for considering its suitability for the production of bimodal porous silicas. Additionally, we present a simple chemical scheme that allows directing the synthesis towards different related materials including both bimodal nanoparticulated mesoporous materials and unimodal particulate silica gels or MCM-41-like solids.