Influence of the Silica-to-Surfactant Ratio and the pH of Synthesis on the Characteristics of esoporous SBA-15

Mesoporous silica sba-15 was synthesised with two different sets of synthesis conditions and was characterised using nitrogen adsorption, x-ray diffraction (xrd), transmission electron microscopy (tem) and scanning electron microscopy (sem). the effects of the ratio of tetraethylorthosilicate/triblockcopolymer (teos/tcp) (1.52–3.38) and ph (1.3–3.0) were particularly studied. well-ordered hexagonal mesoporous silicas were formed at a teos/tcp ratio of 2.25 and a ph above 2. the highest surface area and an intense xrd pattern were shown by those synthesised at a ratio of 1.52 (669 m2/g and 0.5 cc/g). a high teos amount disturbed the condensation of the silica network, causing failure in the formation of the si-o-si network