Supramolecular templating of thermally stable crystalline mesoporous metal oxides using nanoparticulate precursors

A supramolecular templating approach to the preparation of crystalline mesoporous metal oxides using inorganic colloidal nanoparticles as building blocks is presented. The nanoparticles are used to form a mesostructured material with a triblock copolymer surfactant as the templating agent and with a tungstate salt as the binding agent. Tungstated zirconium oxide produced in this manner was found to be highly thermally stable (in excess of 600 degreesC) while maintaining mesoporosity and a high surface area. Other mesoporous oxides were produced using zirconium salts, titania nanoparticles, and aluminum polycations, illustrating the flexibility of this nanoparticle/surfactant templating route.