Post-synthesis pore expansion of mesoporous silica SBA-15 in the organic template removal via solvothermal treatment

The synthesis of mesoporous material SBA-15 has been extensively reported in the past decades, which possesses a pore diameter of 6–8 nm on average. Here, a simple post-synthesis procedure has been developed to synthesize SBA-15 with further expanded pore diameter to above 10 nm simply by a solvothermal treatment replacing traditional hydrothermal step for mesopore template removal, which results in efficient pore expansion and the significantly promoted condensation of silica framework as well. This facile approach is believed applicable for pore expansions of other kinds of mesoporous silica materials.