Synthesis and Application of Mesoporous Materials: Process Status, Technical Problems, and Development Prospects: A Mini-Review

The world today is witnessing a new technological revolution, particularly in the area of new materials. Different types of materials often have different characteristics and uses. Mesoporous materials have a large specific surface area, easily modifiable inner and outer surfaces, tunable pore size and pore channels, and good biocompatibility and thermodynamic stability, thus emerging as a new candidate material in the chemical research community. The presence of mesopores facilitates the rapid diffusion of macromolecules, reduces resistance to mass transfer, and provides different properties depending on the pore size, making mesoporous materials a potential candidate for a wide range of applications. This paper reviews the recent methods used to synthesize mesoporous materials, including hydrothermal synthesis, microwave synthesis, the sol-gel method, the phase conversion method, and the templating method. The soft templating method is introduced in detail, including bulk self-assembly, solvent evaporation-induced self-assembly, solution-based nanoprecipitation, interfacial self-assembly in a solution, and emulsion template self-assembly. The current status of the processes related to mesoporous materials in the fields of biomedicine, environmental and energy, electrochemical energy storage, and gas separation is elaborated. Finally, the technical issues and future directions in the synthesis and application of mesoporous materials are briefly discussed.