Biosurfactants as structure directing agents of porous siliceous materials

Structure Directing Agents (SDAs) are essential for the synthesis of siliceous materials, such as zeolites and mesoporous silicates. Porous structures are usually achieved by using SDAs in the synthesis process, improving the mass transfer limitations of microporous zeolite structures. However, synthetic SDAs present disadvantages such as toxicity and petrochemical dependency. Thus, green biosurfactants are remarkable alternatives, since they show lower critical micelle concentration (1-200 mg/L), lower surface tensions (25-38 mN/m), unique self -aggregation structures, higher biodegradability, and lower toxicity. Therefore, the use of biosurfactants in the synthesis of porous siliceous materials (pore size >20 angstrom) by bottom-up and top-down strategies is an interesting scientific approach to achieving greener synthesis and mainly new structures. Therefore, this work aimed to explore the current state of the art and prospect the potential application of biosurfactants in materials synthesis.

Automated summary

Explored the potential application of biosurfactants in materials synthesis, highlighting their advantages over synthetic structure directing agents, such as lower concentration requirement, lower surface tension, and lower toxicity, making them a promising green synthesis approach.