Comparison of Mesoporous Silica SBA-15 Synthesized from Amorphous Silica Powder and Silicon Alkoxide

The development of an inexpensive and environmentally friendly method for synthesis of mesoporous silica is highly desirable. In this study, mesoporous silica SBA-15 (SP-SBA-15) was synthesized using inexpensive amorphous silica powder, which is produced industrially, as the silica source. SP-SBA-15 was compared to SBA-15 (TO-SBA-15) synthesized by a conventional method using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as the silica source. SP-SBA-15 was found to have 8.1 nm uniform mesopores arranged in a well-defined hexagonal honeycomb structure, and the mesostructure was found to be almost identical to that of TO-SBA-15. However, the specific surface area of SP-SBA-15 was found to be 525.0 m2/g, which is lower than that of TO-SBA-15. This is due to the fact that fewer micropores were formed in the SBA-15 when silica powder was used as the silica source.