Controllable Synthesis of Mesoporous Silica with Ionic Liquid-Supramolecular Organogel Cotemplate

A novel dual-template strategy was first proposed for the fabrication of mesoporous silica with hollow triangular prism morphology, using amino acid ionic liquid tetramethylammonium glycine ([N-1111][Gly]) and supramolecular organogel N-lauroyl-L-glutamic acid di-n-butylamide (GP-1) as the cotemplate. The influence of aging time and the ratio of different templates on the morphology of the synthesized silica was studied. Compared to the silica spheres synthesized using [N-1111][Gly] as template and irregular blocks obtained using only GP-1 template, the hollow triangular prism-like mesoporous silica tube with uniform morphology and high specific surface area was constructed under the optimal conditions within the ionic liquid-supramolecular gel cotemplate. Moreover, the cotemplate mechanism on how to control the microstructure of mesoporous silica was discussed in depth.