Preparation of hierarchically structured porous aluminas by a dual soft template method

A general and potentially easy method of synthesizing aluminas possessing hierarchical pore structure is presented in this paper. This method is based on the integration of the sol-gel process with micelles of poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) block copolymer and oil droplets of decahydronaftalen (DHN) as dual pore templates. With the addition of n-pentanol as co-surfactant, DHN droplets diameter could be controlled within the range of ca. 2-12 mu m. Mercury intrusion porosimetry shows that the produced alumina ceramics possess hierarchical structure composed of two families of pores, namely, the macro- (from 0.1 to 6 mu m) and mesopores (from 8 to 10 nm). The relative population of each family and the average size of macropores could be easily controlled by adjusting the DHN quantity. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.