Well-ordered mesoporous interconnected silica spheres prepared using extremely low surfactant concentrations

Interconnected silica spheres (ISS) with hexagonally ordered mesopores have been synthesized with only a quarter of the total amount of surfactant used in the most surfactant-effective synthesis reported to date, i.e. a surfactant/silica molar ratio of 0.03. A MCM-41-type silica material with spherical core/shell morphology and an average particle size of ca. 250 nm was produced using a simple one-pot hydrothermal step. The shape of the spheres as well as their properties was found to be dependent on the synthesis parameters such as the ammonia and surfactant concentration, being the optimum ammonia/surfactant molar ratio ca. 2000. The samples prepared under these conditions have specific areas of 400–450 m2 g−1 and mesopore volumes up to 0.5 cm3 g−1.

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► Highly ordered mesoporous silica spheres by using extremely low surfactant concentration.
► Synthesis conditions are high concentration of ammonia and no co-solvent.
► Systematic study of ammonia and TEOS concentration on final morphology and properties.
► Interconnected core/shell silica Si–MCM-41 spheres with good textural properties.