Growth and morphology of mesoporous SBA-15 particles

A study was conducted to analyze the growth progression of mesoporous silica particles with the SBA-15 structure. The analysis aimed to study the dynamic of the micellar aggregation and its effects on the particular growth and particle size. SBA-15 was synthesized with Pluronic P104 as structure director and with HCI as the acid medium. Tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMOS) was used to get silica for synthesis. TMOS and other reagents were mixed and tempered to the specified temperature for getting accurate synthesis results. Transmission electron microscope was used to record electron micrographs on carbon copper grids. The nucleation process was performed to obtain a monodisperse size distribution of the silica particles. The growth of particles was observed on the synthesis temperatures. Results show that the synthesis protocol offers an easy way of making highly-structured SBA-15 with well-defined particle size.