Porous Silicas and Respective Carbon Replicates for Adsorption and Catalysis

A recent pathway for obtaining regular mesoporous materials (silicas and carbons) in one step was explored in this work using TEOS, P123 and sucrose as a starting base template. The synthesis was catalyzed by H2SO4. The mesoporous carbon was obtained by carbonization of the previous mixture and the removal of the silica template. In contrast, when the composite mixture was heated in air, a mesoporous silica was obtained. The results showed that the "one-pot" method presented some difficulties in controlling the synthesis variables. All the silica samples presented a more regular pore-size distribution than the respective carbon replicate. The specific surface areas (A(BET)) of the prepared materials were in the range 500-600 m(2)/g for the silica samples and within the range 1000-1200 m(2)/g for the carbon samples.