Effect of metal species on the morphology of metal (oxides) within mesochannels of SBA-15 via a double-solvent method

• Effect of metal species on morphology was investigated via a double-solvent method.
• Different metal nitrate species lead to different morphologies.
• The growth nature and confinement of mesoporous co-affect their morphology.

In this work, several kinds of nanostructured metal (Ag nanowires) or metal oxides (MnOx nanowires, Co3O4 nanoparticles, NiO nanoparticles, CuO nanoparticles) within the mesochannels of SBA-15 have been synthesized by a double-solvent method, in which n-hexane was used as a hydrophobic solvent and metal nitrate aqueous solution as a hydrophilic solvent. The influence of metal nitrate precursor species and concentration on the loading and morphology of metal (oxides) within the mesochannels of SBA-15 was investigated. XRD, N2 adsorption/desorption isotherms and HRTEM were used to characterize these composite materials. It is found that the growth nature of metal (oxides) as well as the confinement effect of mesoporous have great influence on their morphology within the mesochannels of SBA-15. These results in this research would give some instructive information for the morphology design of metal (oxide) with the use of nanoporous template.

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