Synthesis of mesoporous tin oxide on neutral surfactant templates

The first example of mesostructured tin(IV) oxide that shows very large specific surface area and high thermal stability has been prepared using neutral surfactant (tetradecylamine) as template and tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) as crystal growth inhibitor. The one-pot synthesis route reported here is facile and effective to produce highly thermal stable mesoporous (average BJH pore size ∼ 30 Å) tin oxide with small crystals (< 25 Å), narrow pore size distribution (PSD), large pore volume (0.23–0.3 cm3/g), and very large specific surface areas (211–339 m2/g) upon the removal of organic template at temperatures from 400 to 600 °C. The results show that collaborative effects from surfactant template and crystal growth inhibitor (TEOS) are vital in obtaining tin oxide with high mesostructural quality.