Influence of catalyst and solvent on preparation of silica solid core mesoporous shell

Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology, Warangal-506 004, Andhra Pradesh, India

E-mail : venkatathrin@yahoo.com

Manuscript received 17 September 2010, revised 25 July 2011, accepted 07 September 2011

Silica spheres with sub-micrometer sized solid core mesoporous shell structure were prepared. Effect of different catalysts and solvents on synthesis of silica solid core mesoporous shell is studied. Depend on solvent and catalyst the particle size and shape are varied. Experimental results show n-propylamine. diethylamine, triethanolamine were entrapped inside the morphology. However ammonia did not incorporated due to its low temperature volatilability. Apart from pH, density of the solvent and catalyst plays important role in particle growth. There is an optimum value of density, above or below which, they did not give precipitate. Use of octadecyltrimethoxy silane normalizes the particle size, when ammonia catalyst is used. Use of triethanolamine instead of ammonia gives silica hollow cuboids.