Synthesis and characterization of periodic mesoporous organosilicas from bridged organosilanes in the presence of mixed salts

A simple but effective synthetic pathway to periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMOs) has been put forward in this article. The novelty of the present preparative route lies in that, for specific examples, highly ordered ethane- and benzenesilica PMOs can be facilely prepared in the presence of an inorganic salt pair within a wide compositional range, where no addition of mineral acids was necessary. Most of interest is that crystal-like pore walls were observed for the large-pore benzenesilica PMO promoted by this novel system, which has rarely been reported for copolymer-assembled organosilicas, even though the degree of molecular order is not as perfect as those benzenesilicas prepared under basic conditions utilizing cationic surfactants as template. Characterization results based on a series of techniques indicated that both inorganic salts are important for the assembly of ordered mesostructures under the present system, and a plausible formation mechanism deduced from the “salt-assisted” concept as previously reported for mesoporous nonsiliceous materials was discussed.