A facile synthesis of monodispersed mesoporous silica nanospheres with Pm3n structure

•Monodispersed mesoporous silica nanospheres with Pm3n symmetry are prepared.•Dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide is used as template.•Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) acts as dispersing agent.•The high viscosity of the solution retards the silica growth rate.

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have attracted increasing attention for their potential biomedical and catalytic applications. This study reported a facile synthesis of monodispersed mesoporous silica nanospheres (<100 nm) with highly ordered 3D porous structure (Pm3n symmetry) at room temperature by using dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (C12TMAB) as template and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) as dispersing agent via a rapid two-step pH-modulated method. The silica nanospheres were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, dynamic light scattering (DLS), N2 physisorption and 13C MAS-NMR spectroscopy. The monodispersed mesoporous silica nanospheres possessed high specific surface area and large pore volume (>1 cm3 g−1). The presence of CMC increased the solution viscosity and retarded the silica growth rate, thus led to small particle diameter and narrow particle size distribution.

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