Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions

Conference Track:  Emerging Technologies

Keywords:         silica, adorption, surface area, porosity

Contact Title::    Dr.

Contact First Name: Rolando

Contact Last Name:  Roque-Malherbe

University:       Universidad del Turabo

Web:

Position:         Director of the  Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology

Country:          USA

Email:            RRoque@suagm.edu

Fax:              1-787-744  5427

Paper Title: 

Synthesis and Characterization of New Silica Sphere-Packing Mesoporous Materials

Abstract: 

In the present study we synthesize and characterize new silica sphere-packing mesoporous materials obtained with the help of a modification of the Stobe-Fink-Bohn (SFB) method. It is described the synthesis of silica spheres diameters ranging from 200 (or less) to 450 nm.

The structure and essential features, of the obtained material, have been studied with the help of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and the analysis of isotherms of physical adsorption of N2 at 77 K.

The crystallization of SiO2 amorphous microspheres was modified in order to get microspheres of particularly small diameters to be used as adsorbents, catalysts, materials for ultrafiltration membrane synthesis and other new high surface and porosity related applications. The presence of a mesoporous structure within the silica spheres has been demonstrated.

In the present study we report only silica microspheres obtained using NH4OH as catalyst during the synthesis procedure, other silica particle-packing obtained using amines dissolved in water or NaOH solution as catalyst, have shown unprecedented  extremely high  specific surface area in the range from 1700 to 2400 m2/g 

Mailing Address: 

School of Science,

Universidad del Turabo,

PO Box 3030,

Gurabo, PR 00778-3030 

Phone: 

1-787-743-7979 ext. 4260 

Authors: 

R. Roque-Malherbe (P) and F. Marquez.

School of Science, Turabo University, PO Box 3030, Gurabo, PR, 00778-3030, USA