Studies of mesoporous inorganic materials

grantor: University of TorontoStudies in synthesis and characterization of mesoporous silica have been performed. In particular, four aspects have been studied. Primarily, a new synthetic route to enlarge the porosity of mesoporous silica materials has been developed. The synthetic strategy involves aging the syntheses mixture in the mother liquor and depending on the aging time, a gradual increase in pore sizes is observed from 40 to 65 Å. The growth process involves restructuring of the mesopores under mild aqueous conditions without changing the length of the alkyl chain of the surfactant or addition of auxiliary hydrocarbon molecules. The pore-enlarged products retain the crystal morphology of the starting materials and appreciable solubilization of the structure is not observed during the aging process. Templating behavior of cetylpyridinium chloride in the synthesis of mesoporous silica has also been evaluated. Noticeable improvement in the quality of the resulting product is observed through PXRD, TEM, and adsorption analyses. Synthesis of mesoporous silica is also demonstrated using templating behavior of a mixture of two surfactants: cetylpyridinium chloride (CPCl) and cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTACl). As the CPCl:CTACl molar ratio is decreased, a gradual increase in the d100-spacing is observed starting at 'ca'. 41 Å and in sub-angstrom increments reaching to that of 'ca'. 43 Å. A model is presented that simultaneously accounts for the higher degree of structural order of the mesoporous silica templated with CPCl and the ability to fine tune d-spacings on a sub-angstrom length scale using CPCl/CTACl mixtures. In addition, a novel non-aqueous route to formation of lamellar and hexagonal phase of mesoporous silica has been developed. Ethylene glycol is employed as a solvent and as a chelating agent. The chelate effect results in stable glycosilicate(IV) complexes which are necessary for the syntheses and the framework thermal stability of the products has been found to increase via chemical vapor deposition of disilane. This synthetic route has been extended to the synthesis of a novel mesostructured titanium oxide and mixed mesostructured titanium/silicon oxides. The mesoporous mixed titanium/silicon oxides are envisaged to have diverse applications in catalysis, large molecule adsorption and separation science, and the synthetic route developed provides the potential for synthesis of other mesoporous mixed metal oxides over a wide range of compositions.Ph.D