Preparation of highly ordered Fe-SBA-1 and Ti-SBA-1 cubic mesoporous silica via sol-gel processing of silatrane

Silatrane prepared from fumed silica and triethanolamine (TEA) was used as a precursor for the sol-gel synthesis of M-SBA-1 (M = Fe and Ti) at room temperature using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as a template, and dilute solutions of ferric chloride and titanium glycolate as metal sources. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed the mesoporous materials to be well-ordered cubic structures, while N2 adsorption/desorption measurements yielded high surface areas. Diffuse reflectance UV-visible spectroscopy demonstrated that iron (Fe3+) and titanium (Ti4+) were incorporated in the framework of the calcined materials to loadings of 6 wt.% Fe and 10 wt.% Ti without perturbing the ordered mesoporous structure.