S. Nishiwaki et al., Preparation and proton conductivity of surfactant-templated mesoporous silica gels impregnated with protonic acids, J AM CERAM, 83(12), 2000, pp. 3004-3008
Surfactant-templated mesoporous silica gel that was impregnated with variou
s protonic acids has been prepared, and we propose this material as a new t
ype of proton conductor. The conductivity of the mesoporous silica gel that
was impregnated with 5.0M H2SO4 was similar to1 x 10(-4) S/cm at room temp
erature in a dry nitrogen-gas atmosphere after drying in vacuo at room temp
erature; this value was four orders of magnitude greater than that of silic
a gel that was prepared via the conventional sol-gel method and impregnated
with H2SO4. The amount of impregnated H2SO4 in the mesoporous silica gel w
as -2.5 times larger than that of impregnated H2SO4 in the conventional sil
ica gel. The H2O molecules in the mesoporous silica gel that was impregnate
d with H2SO4 remained in the pores of the gel, even after drying in vacuo a
t room temperature.