Mixed Cationic-Nonionic Surfactants Route to MCM-48: Effect of the Nonionic Surfactant on the Structural Properties

Structurally ordered MCM-48 silicas were facilely synthesized using the mixtures of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and p-Octyl polyethylene glycol phenyl ether (OP-10) as co-templates with low molar ratio of CTAB to silica (0.139:1) and low concentration of mixed surfactants (ca. 5%) and within a wide range of OP-10/CTAB ratio (0.08–0.25). For comparison purpose, the cubic material was also prepared with only CTAB as the structure-directing agent under the same preparation conditions. The products obtained by different templating method were thoroughly characterized by XRD, N2 sorption, TEM, TG-DSC and 29Si MAS NMR. Measurement results from these techniques indicated that the introduction of nonionic OP-10 had significant effect on the structural properties of MCM-48 and the mixed surfactants' route allowed an efficient synthesis and a more condensed product compared to the only cationic CTAB templating protocol. Finally, our preliminary explanation for that why cubic MCM-48 materials could be obtained in this system and structural properties were sensitive to the OP-10/CTAB ratios was discussed in detail.