Novel pathways for the preparation of mesoporous MCM-41 materials: control of porosity and morphology

Two novel synthesis routes for the preparation of mesoporous MCM-41 materials are introduced. Both methods use tetra-n-alkoxysilanes such as tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) or tetra-n-propoxysilane (TPS) as a silica source which are added to an aqueous solution of a cationic surfactant in the presence of ammonia as catalyst. In this study, n-alkyltrimethylammonium bromides and n-alkylpyridinium chlorides were employed as templates. The addition of an alcohol (e.g. ethanol or isopropanol) leads to a homogeneous system which allows the formation of spherical MCM-41 particles. The main advantages of these methods are short reaction times, excellent reproducibility and easy preparation of large batches.