A gel-derived mesoporous silica reference material for surface analysis bygas sorption - 1. Textural features

Current interest in monolithic mesoporous matrices requiring carefully tail ored architectures has dictated the requirement for a new generation of sta ndard materials for textural analysis. Accordingly, the textural characteri stics of a mesoporous gel-derived silica monolith have been investigated by nitrogen sorption. Specific surface area (165.5 +/- 1.5 m(2) g(-1)), speci fic pore volume (0.986 +/- 0.020 cm(3) g(-1)), average pore size (119.2 +/- 2.7 Angstrom) and distribution are reported. The properties of the mesopor ous silica were found to compare favourably with those of commercially avai lable certified reference materials for BET surface area and pore size anal ysis. The primary advantage of the gel-silica monolith in this application is the elimination of errors associated with powder sampling. (C) 2000 Else vier Science Ltd and Techna S.r.l. All rights reserved.