Tailoring of pore size in mesoporous silica with stearic ACID and PVP

Mesoporous silica was prepared using tetrathoxysilane (TEOS), cetadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), aqueous ammonia, acetone and water as silica source, template agent, precipitator and solvent respectively. Stearic acid and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were employed as additional templates to tailor the pore size in the resultant porous silica. BET, SAXRD and SEM analyses were used to characterize the surface area, pore size, pore structure, pore regularity and morphology of the sample. BET measurement results showed that PVP could increase the surface area but diminish the pore size while stearic acid could decrease the surface area but enlarge the pore size. SAXRD analysis indicated that more additional template introduction gave rise to less order-structured products. All these various results could be attributed to the differently modified CTAB micelles involving stearic acid and PVP addition.