Preparation of Silica Nanosphere with Vertical Pore and Its Application in Oil-water Separation

Abstract

Uniform monodispersed mesoporous silica nanospheres with vertical pores were successfully synthesized using chiral amphiphilic small molecule L-16Ala5PyClO₄ and solvents as dual templates via solgel transcription. The morphologies and pore sizes of silicas are adjustable by changing the type and amount of solvents in the reaction systems. With the increase of the organic solvent content, the morphologies of the obtained silica changed from nanospheres with vertical pore structures to nanosheets structures. When 1 mL of benzene, cyclohexane or toluene were used as solvents, only silica nanospheres were obtained, the BET surface areas of silica nanospheres reached 600.7, 669.5, and 560.8 m²/g, respectively. The pore sizes were 3.51, 3.54, and 3.46 nm, respectively. Significantly, these ordered silica nanospheres/poly(vinyl alcohol-co-ethylene) (PVA-co-PE) nanofiber membranes have high separation efficiencies (>99%) for n-hexane/water mixtures.

Keywords

sol-gel preparation / mesoporous / silica nanosphere / oil-water separation

References

[1] Zhang W, Li S, Zhang J, et al. Synthesis and Adsorption Behavior Study of Magnetic Fibrous Mesoporous Silica[J]. Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 2019, 282: 15-21.

[2] Yan X, Dai K, Mei P. Synthesis of Mesoporous Silica-zirconia Supported Phosphotungstic Acid and Its Catalytic Performance for Oxidative Desulfurization of Fuel[J]. Journal of Wuhan University of Technology-Mater. Sci. Ed., 2015, 30(2): 261-265.

[3] Liu XM, Cao F, Wang L, et al. Road Performances of Mesoporous Nano-silica Modified Asphalt Binders[J]. Journal of Wuhan University of Technology-Mater. Sci. Ed., 2017, 32(4): 845-853.

[4] Wang WX, Wang PY, Chen L [J], et al. Chem., 2020, 6: 1 097-1 112.

[5] Birault A, Molina E, Toquer G, et al. Large-pore Periodic Mesoporous Organosilicas as Advanced Bactericide Platforms[J]. ACS Appl. Bio Mater., 2018, 1 787–1 792

[6] Liu YP, Chen JC, Li W, et al. Carbon Functionalized Mesoporous Silica-based Gas Sensors for Indoor Volatile Organic Compounds[J]. J. Colloid Interface Sci., 2016, 477: 54-63.

[7] Shan W, Wang W, Ru H. Siliceous Mesocellular Foams Modified Via a Partitioned Cooperative Self-assembly Process Using Hexane as Pore Swelling Agent[J]. J. Non-Cryst. Solids, 2015, 425: 183-189.

[8] Wan Y, Shi Y, Zhao D, et al. Designed Synthesis of Mesoporous Solids via Nonionic-surfactant-templating Approach[J]. Chem. Commun., 2007: 897–926

[9] Yan ZJ, Wang SB, Wu LM, et al. Preparation of Mesoporous 1,2-ethylene-silica Hollow Spheres with Tunable Wall Thickness[J]. Materials Letters, 2012, 78: 14-17.

[10] Shen DK, Yang JP, Li XM, et al. Biphase Stratification Approach to Three-Dimensional Dendritic Biodegradable Mesoporous Silica Nanospheres[J]. Nano Lett., 2014, 14: 923-932.

[11] Li BZ, Pu YY, Li Y, et al. Formation of Silica Multilamellar Vesicles Through Dual-templating[J]. Materials Letters, 2013, 113: 34-37.

[12] Li Y, Li BZ, Yan ZJ, et al. Preparation of Chiral Mesoporous Silica Nanotubes and Nanoribbons Using a Dual-Templating Approach[J]. Chem. Mater., 2013, 25: 307-312.

[13] Haffner SM, Parra-Ortiz E, Browning KL, et al. Membrane Interactions of Virus-like Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles[J]. ACS Nano, 2021, 15(4): 6 787-6 800.

[14] Liu YP, Shen DK, Chen G, et al. Mesoporous Silica Thin Membranes with Large Vertical Mesochannels for Nanosize-Based Separation[J]. Adv. Mater., 2017, 1 702 274

[15] Qing WH, Li XH, Wu YF, et al. In Situ Silica Growth for Superhydrophilic-underwater Superoleophobic Silica/PVA Nanofbrous Membrane for Gravity-driven Oil-in-water Emulsion Separation[J]. Journal of Membrane Science, 2020, 612: 118 476.

[16] Hu J, Guo YM, Li BZ, et al. Chiral Carbonaceos Nanotubes Prepared by Carbonization of Chiral Organic Self-assemblies[J]. Materials Letters, 2018, 221: 8-11.

[17] Chen YL, Fan H, Zha XL, et al. Fabrication of Silica/PVA-co-PE Nanofber Membrane for Oil/Water Separation[J]. Fash Text, 2021, 8: 14.