Morphological control of mesoporous silica SBA-15 synthesized at low temperature without additives

Fiber-like or rod-like mesoporous SBA-15 silicas with different lengths and diameter of macrostructures and pore diameter could be synthesized by the selfassembly of silica-surfactant (commonly used Pluronic P123 (EO ₂₀-PO₇₀EO₂₀) as a structure-directing agent) through careful control of the synthetic temperature and stirring time without any additives. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and nitrogen adsorption- desorption isotherms are used to characterize these mesoporous silica materials. Compared with those reports on conventional SBA-15, our work is focused on one-step synthesis and the morphological control of ordered mesoporous silica synthesized at low temperature under low concentration of P123 (0.67 wt%) without the addition of inorganic salts, where pre-hydrolyzed silica species may favor the self-assembly of silica-polymer hybrid micelles. Moreover, the pore diameter of fiber-like SBA-15 synthesized at 40 °C is slightly smaller than that of conventional SBA-15, revealing that the average micellar radius of P123 micelles in this low concentration of P123 solution was almost same as that for the conventional synthesis of SBA-15.