Fine-tuning the degree of organic functionalization of mesoporous silica nanosphere materials via an interfacially designed co-condensation method

A synthetic method that can fine tune the amount of chemically accessible organic functional groups on the pore surface of MCM-41 type mesoporous silica nanosphere (MSN) materials has been developed by electrostatically matching various anionic organoalkoxysilanes with the cationic cetyltrimethylammonium bromide micelles in a base-catalyzed condensation reaction of tetraethoxysilane.