Synthesis, functionalization, and environmental application of silica-based mesoporous materials of the M41S and SBA-n families: A review

Abstract The functionalized silica-based mesoporous molecular sieves are widely used successfully in various applications, mainly due to their interesting and unique textural and structural features, which allow their use in the most different scientific areas, such as catalysis, adsorption, separation of target molecules, drug delivery devices, chemosensors, biosensors, so on. In this review, we report the state of the art of recent advancements on the modified, inspired, and architectured M41S- and SBA-n-based mesoporous arrays syntheses and its strategic use in the environmental approaches, mainly due to the great interest and need of the scientific community to obtain functionalized arrays with multiple features. In view of the different approaches that have been extensively explored for the functionalization of nano-architectured arrays presented in the literature, it is possible to state that the strategies of modification of the M41S- and SBA-n-based mesoporous arrays can enhance the adsorptive, catalytic, and separation properties of the functionalized mesoporous architectures. Thus, evidencing that these multifunctional materials synergistically modified, with different pore geometries and architectures, can be widely used in the environmental remediation area, aiming to minimize environmental impacts, improve quality of life, and avoid the generation of waste, aiming at an increasingly green, clean, and sustainable footprint in the synthesis and application processes of these multifunctional materials.