Synthesis of amino-functionalized mesoporous silica–zirconia mixed oxide using sodium silicate and zirconium carbonate complex

Amino-functionalized mesostructured silica–zirconia mixed oxide has been synthesized through a very convenient one step synthesis route using water soluble sodium silicate, zirconium(IV) carbonate complex and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane in the presence of anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate under basic condition, exhibiting excellent adsorption properties towards arsenate ions. Moderately high surface area has been achieved using Si/Zr ratio 2.06 and 10 mol% 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane with respect to the amount of silica. The presence of mixed oxide framework is clearly visible from the peak shift of Si–O–Si stretching frequency in FTIR spectra. The SBET and pore volume of the composite was found to be 420 m2 g−1 and 0.4396 ml g−1 respectively with uniform and narrow pore size distribution centered at 42.8 Å. The mesoporous composite showed good absorption properties towards arsenate anion and anionic dye molecules.