A facile way to synthesize mesoporous silica with Ia3d cubic symmetry

A facile synthesis route of the mesoporous silica with Ia3d cubic symmetry is reported for the first time, in which the MCM-48 type materials can be prepared at room temperature, instead of high or low temperature as usual, by using cetylpyridinium chloride (CPyCl) as template, tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as a silica source and HNO3 as the acid catalyst in the presence of phenol. The resulting samples exhibit a larger surface area than their analogues synthesized under alkaline conditions, which will be beneficial for their potential applications in adsorption and catalysis. Moreover, the influences of HNO3/TEOS molar composition and the amount of phenol on the formation of Ia3d cubic mesostructure are examined and the actual function of these is described in terms of g value. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.