Synthesis of highly ordered mesoporous silica materials using sodium silicate and amphiphilic block copolymers

A commercially important synthetic approach to highly ordered mesoporous silica materials (SBA-family) with 2-D hexagonal (P6mm), 3-D hexagonal (P6(3)/mmc) and cubic (Im3m and Pm3m) structures, using sodium silicate as the silica source and amphiphilic block copolymers as the structure-directing agents is demonstrated.