Structural transcription of organogels to mesoporous silicas: a chain-length dependent morphology and pore texture

Abstract

Here, we report a chain-length dependent morphology and pore structure tailing of mesoporous silica templated from organogels, which is formed by primary alkylamine and ethylene glycol at room temperature. As the chain length of alkylamine changes from 12 to 18, the resulted materials exhibit a morphology change from layers to spheres and platelets, respectively. SEM and TEM observation revealed that these shapes appear to be inherited from their parent organogels. Further pore structure characterization by nitrogen sorption analysis demonstrates that all the resulted silicas exhibit typical IV isotherms indicative of uniform mesopores, and their pore sizes are dependent on the chain length of alkylamine used.