A facile route for rapid synthesis of cubic mesoporous silica

Ordered SBA-16-type mesoporous silica materials (MSMs) have been rapidly synthesized under weak acidic media in the presence of phosphomolybdic acid (abbreviated to HPMo) and inorganic salts (NaCl, Na2SO4, KCl and K2SO4) by using nonionic triblock copolymer F127 as a structure directing agent and tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) as a silica source. Both HPMo and inorganic salts play a crucial role in promoting SBA-16-type MSMs formation, and the reaction products have still retained an ordered body-centered cubic (Im3m) mesostructure after treated with 100 degrees C water for 120 h. The high hydrothermal stability of reaction products might be attributed to the higher degree of polymerization and condensation of silanol groups, arisen from the synergistic effect of rapid nucleation with the aid of HPMo and salt effect during the crystallization process. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.