Synthesis and Characterization of Ordered Mesoporous Silica Spheres Using Anionic and Nonionic Mixed Surfactants for Their Potential Application in LC

Ordered mesoporous silicas (OMSs) with spherical morphology were synthesized by using mixed surfactants of anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate and nonionic block copolymer EO20PO70EO20 (P123) as template through an acid-catalyzed silica sol-gel process. A variety of characterizations demonstrated that the silica products exhibited well-formed spherical morphology, ordered mesostructure, narrow pore size distribution and large surface area (similar to 700 m(2) g(-1)). It was found that the synthesized OMSs had high adsorption capacity by using oxymatrine as model solute. The column packed with the silica spheres exhibited low back pressure and baseline separation of aromatic compounds such as benzene and nitrobenzene could be achieved. These results demonstrated the synthesized OMSs as a potential stationary phase for liquid chromatography.