title: Mesostructured SBA-16 with excellent hydrothermal, thermal and mechanical stabilities: modified synthesis and its catalytic application.
abstract: We report a modified method to synthesize SBA-16 mesostructured silica under refluxing condition using block co-polymer poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) (F127) as template, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as co-template, and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as silica source. The physiochemical properties of SBA-16 silica were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen physisorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and (29)Si solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The resulting SBA-16 silica exhibited highly ordered mesoporous structure, mono-dispersed spherical morphology, excellent hydrothermal, thermal and mechanical stabilities. It was worth mentioning that the synthesis time can be significantly reduced from 48 h to 8 h, which opened a feasible way to produce SBA-16 silica in a large scale. Moreover, the "super-cage" pore structure of SBA-16 encapsulated gold nanoparticles in a "ship in a bottle" way. The well-confined gold nanoparticles (mean size of 5 nm) with a narrow particle size distribution were highly active in solvent-free benzyl alcohol selective oxidation with molecular oxygen.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 62 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637459, Singapore.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Qinghu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Xianbin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yanhui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang