Preparation and characterization of octyl and octadecyl-modified mesoporous SBA-15 silica molecular sieves for adsorption of dimethyl phthalate and diethyl phthalate

Octyl (C8) or octadecyl (C18)-modified mesoporous SBA-15 silica molecular sieves have been prepared by adding SBA-15 silica molecular sieves to octyltrimethoxysilane or octadecyltrimethoxysilane in toluene at 100 °C, and characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). FTIR spectra shows the presence of methylene (–CH2–) and methyl (–CH3) bands on the modified SBA-15. Powder XRD data indicate the structure of modified SBA-15 with octyl or octadecyl groups still remains two-dimensional hexagonal mesostructrure. Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analysis presents that surface area of octyl- and octadeyl-SBA-15 changed from 647 to 449 and 321 m2 g−1, respectively, and SEM images show the decreased size of modified SBA-15 particles. TEM images of modified materials with alkyl groups show the structures remain the same as the parent SBA-15 silica. We also have studied the adsorption capacity of the materials to phthalate esters (dimethyl and diethyl phthalate) by dynamic adsorption experiments on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). It is found that the modified materials can increase the adsorption of phthalate esters compared to SBA-15 particles, and the adsorption capacity increased with the increased length of alkyl chain on SBA-15. The maximum dynamic adsorption capacity for diethyl phthalate was 3.9 (C8-SBA-15) or 4.3 (C18-SBA-15) times higher than that of SBA-15 particles, respectively. The results indicate that alkyl SBA-15 particles could be used for enrichment of phthalate esters in water samples before the further analysis.