Effect of nonsurfactant template content on the particle size and surface area of monodisperse mesoporous silica nanospheres

A convenient and environmentally friendly synthesis of monodisperse and mesoporous silica nanospheres by the addition of sugar molecules like glucose and fructose as templates into the Stober process is presented. The nonsurfactant templates can be extracted by simple extraction with water, thus circumventing the requirement of high temperature calcinations which tend to affect textural properties. Nitrogen adsorption–desorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were employed for the characterization of these spheres. Results indicate that the particle size can be tuned from 50 to 1140 nm by simply controlling the concentration of fructose in the reaction. A notable change in surface area with increasing fructose content was also observed. The effect of replacing fructose with glucose or maltose on the particle size and surface area of the spheres was also examined. These spherical silicas could find potential applications in enzyme encapsulation, as stationary phase in chromatography and as fillers in polymer composites.