Comparative analysis of textural properties of SBA-15 and MCM-41 materials

Abstract

A study on textural properties of the SBA-15 and MCM-41 materials was conducted. The SBA-15 material was synthesized using triblock copolymer E020P07O20 (P123) as template under strong acid conditions while the MCM-41 material was synthesized using cethyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as templale under basic conditions. By employing the characterization techniques of XRD, TEM and pliysical adsorption of N₂ in combination with t-plot, the textural properties of SBA-15 were compared with those of MCM-41. MCM-41 has a hexagonal array of uniform cylindrical pores while SBA-I5 is more complex than an array of hexagonally ordered channels. The t-plot provided the evidence that its primary mesopores are accompanied by a certain amount of micropores within mesoporous walls of the main channel. The objective of the present study is to provide basic information of textural properties of these materials to find out more abut their applications.