Report On The Synthesis And Syntheis Conditions Of...

A REPORT ON THE SYNTHESIS AND SYNTHEIS CONDITIONS OF MESOPOROUS SBA-15 SILICA 1. MATERIALS: 1.1. A Surfactant: The surfactant to be used in this is a triblock copolymer: - poly(ethylene oxide) block – poly(propylene oxide) block – poly(ethylene oxide) block commonly known as pluronic 123 or P123. This substance is a structure directing agent (Kim Stucky 2000) where P signifies that the copolymer is in form of a paste, 12 is a number multiplied by 300 to give an approximate molar mass of PPO while 3 signifies PEO is 30 wt% of the whole compound (Johansson et al. 2015) Figure 1: Chemical formula and properties of the surfactant P123 (Tianyuan et al. 2013) P123, a nonionic surfactant, is easy to separate, biodegradable, nontoxic and not costly to purchase (Stevens et al. 2006), (Zhao et al. 1998). P123 has the potentials to template ordered mesoporous materials and also to form more stable mesoporous silica materials (Kipkemboi et al. 2001). 1.2. Silica Precursor: There are two common silica precursors that can be used in the synthesis of SBA-15. These are Sodium metasilicate and Tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS). Sodium metasilicate has been said to be preferred to TEOS because SBA-15 synthesized using the former is said to have pore walls slightly thicker than those prepared using the latter (Fulvio et al. 2005). Also, the cost of purchasing sodium metasilicate is low compared to the cost of TEOS which make