Synthesis and characterization of SBA-15 macrospheres with hierarchical pore structure

The new macroscopic-scale SBA-15 spheres with diameter of 0.2–0.5 mm are prepared by a sol–gel method, in which the tetrabutylorthosilicate (TBOS) is used as silicon source and triblock copolymer (P123) and polyoxyethylene octylphenol ether (OP-10) are used as templates. The resulting spherical samples are characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption–desorption, TEM and SEM methods. The results show that the inner structure of SBA-15 macrospheres has macroporous channels (0.5 μm) and mesoporous skeleton (4–5 nm). These SBA-15 macrospheres with the hierarchical pore structure demonstrate high absorption capacity for Emodin molecules.