A new mechanism about the process of preparing nanoporous silica with activated carbon mold

Supercritical fluids can be used to proceed nanoscale casting, during which silica precursor dissolved in supercritical CO2 and the supercritical CO2 was in contact with the active carbon templates. After removal of active carbon templates by calcinations, microporous and mesoporous silica samples replicating not only mesostructures, but also macroscopic of active carbon molds were obtained and the product have better porous capacity and specific surface area. Here, we studied the influences of a variety of factors upon nanoscale casting using supercritical fluids (NC-SCF), and determined the best casting condition. Also, we compared nanoscale casting by using supercritical fluids to simple liquid casting and on the basis of these studies, a new mechanism about preparing nanoporous silica with supercritical CO2-assisted method and with simple liquid casting was proposed.