Porous silica with complex dual morphology, prepared with a novel silica precursor in highly concentrated emulsions

Abstract

Porous inorganic oxides are usually prepared by sol-gel synthesis in the presence of surfactant systems, which act as templates for the control of the pore size and morphology. In a previous work, we obtained materials with dual meso/macroporous structures, by hydrolizing tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) in the external phase of O/W highly concentrated emulsions, where this external phase was a liquid crystal [1]. However, ethanol released by TEOS hydrolysis produced emulsion instability and also obstructed the formation of ordered mesopores.