Mesoporous silica spheres via l-alkylamine templating route

We present the procedure to synthesize mesoporous silica spheres using 1-al kylamine as the templating agent. Various types of spherical morphologies o f spirals, hollow and hard mesoporous silica with a submicrometer-sized dia meter were produced by small variations in the synthesis mixture compositio n. On the other hand, by changing the mixing order of the reactants in the synthesis, mesoporous hard spheres of several tens of micrometers in size w ere produced. The morphologies of the products and their porous properties are strongly influenced by the concentration and volume of the acidic aqueo us solution of the synthesis mixture. All the spherical products have very large surface areas (similar to 770-1000 m(2)g(-1)) and pore volumes (simil ar to0.4-0.8 mlg(-1)), and exhibit disordered wormhole-like pore structures . (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. AH rights reserved.