Mesoporous Silica

Porous materials are categorized on the basis of pore size. Mesoporous materials possess a large number of pores ranging from 2 to 50. nm in size. Periodic mesostructures of various compositions, including inorganic oxides and metal phosphates, are successfully replicated by using amphiphilic organic molecules possessing a self-assembling property. It is essential for the preparation of periodic mesoporous materials to generate the interactions between soluble inorganic species and amphiphilic organic molecules. Amphiphilic organic molecules, whose hydrophilic headgroups are interacted with inorganic species, are self-assembled with gradual condensation of inorganic species, being called as 'cooperative organization' for the formation of periodic mesostructures. Materials with uniform mesopores can then be prepared after the removal of surfactant assemblies. Such periodic mesoporous materials have been expected as reaction vessels showing high selectivity for relatively large organic molecules and thus increasingly and widely investigated.