Dye-templating nonsurfactant synthesis of mesoporous silica

Following a three-stepped reaction, a novel nonsurfactant method was established to synthesize mesoporous silica using dye Basic Fuchsin (BF) as template, and using m-xylenediisocyanate (m-XDI) and aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) as bridging molecules. The first step is to form the intermediate product (namely XA) of m-XDI and APTES. The second step is to form the intermediate product (namely XAD) of XA and dye BF. The third step is the hydrolysis and condensation of siloxane to construct mesopores. Due to the plane structure of dye BF, it was linked with hydrolyzed siloxane precursors to form mesopores. As expected, mesoporous structure could be formed only when the XA to dye molar ratio was set to 3:1. The synthesized mesoporous silica had narrow pore size distribution centered at 3.56 nm and high surface area of 716 m2 g−1.