Silicone surfactant templated mesoporous silica

Tailoring the wall thickness and organo-functionalization are two important issues in the design and application of mesoporous materials. Herein we report a novel strategy to deal with such two issues simultaneously by using a commercially available silicone surfactant, an ABA-type triblock copolymer poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polydimethylsiloxane-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO14-b-PDMS13-b-PEO14). The silicone surfactant serves as the template for directing meso-structures, the source of functional groups for surface modification, and the silica source for strengthening the wall of mesochannels. Meanwhile, 1,3,5-trimethyl benzene (TMB) was employed as the pore-swelling-agent. The mesoporous silica materials with thick walls and/or hydrophobic dimethylsiloxane functionalized pores were achieved by calcination and extraction, respectively.

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► Silicone surfactant containing PDMS block was used as template.
► PDMS block integrate the pore template, the organo-groups and the silica source.
► Functionalized and/or thick wall mesoporous silica materials were achieved.
► TMB was used as the pore-swelling-agent.