Effect of addition of pore expanding agent on changes of structure characteristics of ordered mesoporous silicas

A series of mesoporous silica materials were synthesized by applying two types of Pluronic copolymers as pore creating agents. Differentiation of pore structure of the obtained sorbents was attained by changing the amount of trimethylbenzene as pore expander introduced to a reacting mixture. The parameters characterizing porous structure were estimated from nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms. The changes of pore arrangement in the synthesized materials were investigated by using X-ray diffraction. The structural transformations were found at the TMB/polymer ratio of 0.8 and 1. Correlations between the values of structure parameters and the content of TMB were found.