In this work, sub-50 nm pegylated mesoporous silica nanoparticles prepared with hydrothermal treatment are shown to have long-term stability in various media at both room and physiological temperature. Compared to bare mesoporous silica nanoparticles, the highly pegylated mesoporous silica nanoparticles show significantly improved biocompatibility and decreased macrophage uptake, making these n...

Transparent mesoporous silica films were prepared by sol-gel spin coating on silicon wafers at room temperature. An erbium complex, erbium tris 8-hydroxyquinoline (ErQ), was homogeneously impregnated into the pores of the mesoporous silica films, and its concentration was easily controlled by using a solution immersing technique. The ErQ-impregnated mesoporous silica films show a room-temperatu...

Mesoporous silica molecular sieves are a kind of unique catalyst support due to their large pore size and high surface area. Several methods have been developed to immobilize heteropolyacids (HPAs) inside the channels of these mesoporous silicas. The mesoporous silica-supported HPA materials have been widely used as recyclable catalysts in heterogeneous systems. They have shown high catalytic a...

Mesoporous silica nanofibers were synthesized within the pores of the anodic aluminum oxide template using a simple sol-gel method. Transmission electron microscopy investigation indicated that the concentration of the structure-directing agent (EO20PO70EO20) had a significant impact on the mesostructure of mesoporous silica nanofibers. Samples with alignment of nanochannels along the axis of m...

The fabrication of mesoporous silica films with well-defined morphologies offers tremendous opportunity for device structures. In particular the generation of a mesoporous silica film with cylindrical nanochannels of prescribed diameters oriented normal to the substrate holds great promise for applications in catalysis, bio-molecular separations, sensors, photonics, synthesis of aligned metalli...

We have measured the hydration-level dependence of the single-particle dynamics of water confined in the ordered mesoporous silica MCM-41. The dynamic crossover observed at full hydration is absent at monolayer hydration. The monolayer dynamics are significantly slower than those of water in a fully hydrated pore at ambient temperatures. At low temperatures, the opposite is found to be true. Th...

Highly ordered aluminum-containing mesoporous silica (Al-MCM-41) was prepared using attapulgite clay mineral as a Si and Al source. Mesoporous complexes embedded with CuO nanoparticles were subsequently prepared using various copper sources and different copper loadings in a direct synthetic route. The resulting CuO/Al-MCM-41 composite possessed p6mm hexagonally symmetry, well-developed mesopor...

Creating highly active and stable metal catalysts is a persistent goal in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. However, a real catalyst can rarely achieve both of these qualities simultaneously due to limitations in the design of the active site and support. One method to circumvent this problem is to fabricate firmly attached metal species onto the voids of a mesoporous support formed simulta...

Assembly of mesostructured silica using Pluronic P123 triblock copolymer (EO(20)-PO(70)-EO(20)) and n-butanol mixture is a facile synthesis route to the MCM-48-like ordered large mesoporous silicas with the cubic Iad mesostructure. The cubic phase domain is remarkably extended by controlling the amounts of butanol and silica source correspondingly. The extended phase domain allows synthesis of ...

1. Introduction With the advent of ordered mesoporous materials with hierarchically organized pore structures, many fundamental questions concerning the behaviour of confined fluids can now be addressed experimentally. Since they are promising materials for practical applications in catalysis, separation and adsorption, knowlegde of diffusion properties of such structures is of quintessential i...