Jc. Panitz et F. Geiger, Leaching of the anthraquinone dye Solvent Blue 59 incorporated into organically modified silica xerogels, J SOL-GEL S, 13(1-3), 1998, pp. 473-477
The effects of preparation method and precursor composition on the leaching
behavior of the anthraquinone dye Solvent Blue 59 incorporated into silica
based xerogels have been studied. Xerogels were prepared under acidic cond
itions from mixtures of 20 mol% of organically modified silicon alkoxides,
R'-Si(OR)(3), in Si(OR)(4) (R = methyl or ethyl, R' = methyl, vinyl, phenyl
). The dye was added at the beginning of the sol-gel reaction. The reaction
was carried out by either hydrolysis under acidic conditions or acidolysis
by formic acid. The dye incorporated was leached with refluxing ethanol us
ing a Soxhlet extraction procedure to simulate the long-term stability of t
he samples prepared. With increasing size of organic substituent (methyl <
vinyl < phenyl), the amount of dye leached decreases. Results from nitrogen
adsorption experiments show that all samples characterized have about the
same average pore diameter, but they differ in total pore volume and BET su
rface area. With increasing size of the organic residue, the pore volume de
creases by an order of magnitude. Therefore, it is concluded that the micro
structure of the xerogels prepared determines the retention behavior of dye
s incorporated during the sol-gel reaction.