Synthesis of High-quality MCM-41 using silica fume as silica source

The high-quality MCM-41 was synthesized from silica fume with Citric acid and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as template agents. Silica fume entered into liquid system in silicate and matched with CTA(+). Mesoporous phase formed with the help of Citric and PEG-6000 in an acidic process followed. The structure and morphology of mesoporous silica material so-prepared was investigated based on the analysis of X-ray diffraction (XRD), N-2 sorption/desorption (BET) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results indicated that MCM-41 was successfully prepared by substituting silica fume for the traditional silica source of tetraethyl orthosilicate, and the MCM-41 displayed high quality with the pore sizes 4.3 nm, the BET areas 1058 m(2)/g, the total pore volume 0.862 cm(3)/g.