Preparation of sub-2 μm large-pore monodispersed mesoporous silica spheres using mixed templates and application in HPLC

Sub-2 μm large-pore monodispersed mesoporous silica spheres (MMSS) were synthesized by using mixed non-ionic surfactants of dodecylamine (DDA) and dodecylamine polyoxyethylene ether (AC1210) as templates through an alkali-catalyzed silica sol–gel technique combined with the template method. Methanol-H2O volume ratio on morphology was researched in detail. In addition, by using hydrothermal treatment, the average pore size of MMSS could be enlarged to 11 nm from 4.4 nm. The mesoporous silica particles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), laser particle size analyzer, X-ray diffraction, N2 physisorption technique. The synthesized sub-2 μm monodispersed mesoporous silica microspheres were successfully functionalized by dimethyloctadecylchlorosilane and used as a packing material in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).