title: An Eco-Friendly, Tunable and Scalable Method for Producing Porous Functional Nanomaterials Designed Using Molecular Interactions.
abstract: Despite significant improvements in the synthesis of templated silica materials, post-synthesis purification remains highly expensive and renders the materials industrially unviable. In this study this issue is addressed for porous bioinspired silica by developing a rapid room-temperature solution method for complete extraction of organic additives. Using elemental analysis and N2and CO2adsorption, the ability to both purify and controllably tailor the composition, porosity and surface chemistry of bioinspired silica in a single step is demonstrated. For the first time the extraction is modelled using molecular dynamics, revealing that the removal mechanism is dominated by surface-charge interactions. This is extended to other additive chemistry, leading to a wider applicability of the method to other materials. Finally the environmental benefits of the new method are estimated and compared with previous purification techniques, demonstrating significant improvements in sustainability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD, England.
authors.forename: Joseph R H
authors.initials: JRH
authors.lastname: Manning
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 75 Montrose Street, Glasgow, G1 1XJ, Scotland.
authors.forename: Thomas W S
authors.initials: TWS
authors.lastname: Yip
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 75 Montrose Street, Glasgow, G1 1XJ, Scotland.
authors.forename: Alessia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Centi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Strathclyde, 75 Montrose Street, Glasgow, G1 1XJ, Scotland.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jorge
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield, Mappin Street, Sheffield, S1 3JD, England.
authors.forename: Siddharth V
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4958-8840
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Patwardhan
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D049329:Nanostructures; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000737:chemistry; D016062:Porosity
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: green nanomaterials; manufacturing; molecular interactions; porous materials; silica