Characterization of mesoporous stannosilicates obtained via non-hydrothermal synthesis using Na2SnO3 as the precursor

This paper describes the synthesis of ordered mesoporous silica MCM-41 and mesoporous stannosilicates Sn-MCM-41, under mild and non-hydrothermal conditions, as well as their characterization. The aim was to explore the influence of the synthesis temperature (25 and 80 °C) on the properties of the mesostructured material. A short synthesis time (30 min) and a sol-gel method were employed, with an Si/Sn ratio of 10, using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as a source of silica and cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as a structure-template. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that sodium stannate (Na2SnO3) has been employed as an Sn(IV) source in MCM-41 synthesis. The characterization of the materials was performed via several techniques and the results revealed the formation of MCM-41 and Sn-MCM-41 with a high specific surface area and narrow pore size distribution, and there are strong indications that Sn(IV) is inserted in the MCM-41 lattice. This approach represents a significant advance compared to the materials commonly obtained via hydrothermal synthesis with time-consuming procedures and could be easily applied to large-scale production.