Synthesis of spherical SBA-15 silica particles without the use of additional cosurfactant

Abstract

The synthesis of SBA-15 material with spherical particles is performed by the template method by using only a surfactant Pluronic P123 under acidic conditions. In the synthesis of SBA-15 with spherical particles, an HCl solution was used after specialised chemical treatment of clay purification. The dominant presence of the spheres with diameters up to around 2 μm was confirmed by the scanning electron microscopy(SEM) method. In contrast, the Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDS) confirmed that the spheres consisted only of SiO2 in composition. In addition to the methods mentioned above, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR) methods were used to characterise SBA-15 materials. Application of HCl solution after chemical treatment of clay purification represents the application of technology in the synthesis of spherical SBA-15.