Effect of stirring rate on the morphology of FDU-12 mesoporous silica particles

•Morphology of FDU-12 mesoporous silica particles is controlled by changing the stirring rate during synthesis.•When increasing stirring rate, FDU-12 particle morphology changes from well-defined to poorly defined.•Internal pore structure and three-dimensional pore network topology are unchanged by stirring rate.•At high stirring rate, the pore network structure changes from regularly ordered to long-range disordered.

Ordered mesoporous FDU-12 silica particles with different morphologies were synthesized by varying the stirring rate. The mesoporous structure and textural properties of the FDU-12 samples were characterized by N2 adsorption and desorption, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and small angle X-ray scattering. The influence of the stirring conditions on the morphology was demonstrated, as the FDU-12 particle morphology changes from a regular, hexagonal platelet to a poorly defined shape when the stirring rate is changed from slow to fast. At very fast stirring rate, shear influences the mesophase structure, although the pore diameter and wall thickness remain unchanged.

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