How to control the structural properties of purely ciliceous MCM-41

This work deals with the possibility of improving the structural and textural proprieties of MCM-41 only by playing with their synthesis reagents. To realize this study, three kind of silicas are chosen; colloidal silica (ludox); fumed silica and tetraethylorthosilicat (TEOS) and three kind of bases; sodium hydroxide (NaOH); tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) and tetraethylammonium hydroxide (TEAH). Each silica source is tested with three bases separately at three different temperatures 373 K. 403 K and 423 K for duration of 48 h under hydrothermal treatment. As results we noticed when the hydrothermal treatment temperature increase leads to more stable materials by increasing their wall thickness. The use of organic bases promotes the increase of specific surface area, pore sizes and volume pores of MCM-41 materials.