Controlling nanostructure in periodic mesoporous hexylene-bridged polysilsesquioxanes

• Mesoporous hexylene bridged polysilsesquioxanes were prepared by base-catalyzed, surfactant templated polymerizations.
• The mesoporous materials were found to have cubic (Pm3n) symmetry.
• Influence of aging time, aging temperature and monomer concentration on structure was investigated.
• Hexylene bridged polysilsesquioxanes with the highest surface area reported to date were prepared.

Periodic mesoporous bridged polysilsesquioxane (PMBPS) materials are hybrid organic inorganic materials with long range order and porosity between 1–15 nm length scales and great promise as adsorbents and chromatographic materials. In this study, we describe the preparation and optimization of a class of PMBPS with hexylene-bridging groups and cubic Pm3n symmetry. These hexylene-PMBPSs were prepared by surfactant templating of the sol–gel polymerization of 1,6-bis(triethoxysilyl)hexane (BESH) with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and N-(3-trimethylammoniumpropyl)hexadecylammonium dibromide (C16–3–1). Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and nitrogen adsorption data were used to ascertain the influence on the mesostructure as a function of monomer concentration and aging duration, and aging temperature.