Aerosol generated mesoporous silica particles

Organized mesoporous silica sub-micro spheres have been synthesized by spray drying solutions containing hydrated Si(OEt)(4) as silica precursor and surfactants as texturing agent. The resulting powder exhibits controlled organized 2-D hexagonal honey-comb like porosity of 2.2 nm mean pore diameter, homogeneous size dispersion (the particle average diameter is around 0.3 mum and standard deviation sigma = 1.89), and a high specific surface area (1000 m(2) g(-1)). The long-range order porosity was achieved after controlling different parameters: surfactant type and surfactant/TEOS ratios, dilution, pH, temperature and relative humidity under laminar flux motion conditions of aerosol generation. Powders were characterized using X-ray diffraction, TEM, N-2 isotherm adsorption/desorption cycles and FTIR.