Variation of surface area of silica monoliths by controlling ionic character/chain length of surfactants and polymers
M. Sharmaa, P. Jaina, A. Mishraa, A. Mehtaa, D. Choudhurya, S. Hazrab and S. Basua
aSchool of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Thapar University, Patiala 147004, India
bSaha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata 700064, India

To achieve maximum pore diameter and surface area of porous silica monoliths different structure directing agents (SDAs) (Cationic/anionic/neutral/mixture) were used. BET study showed alteration of SDA’s chain length, composition or concentration have a cumulative effect on controlling the surface area and pore size. PEG in combination with other SDAs like CTAB, SDS, BTMAC, Triton-X100 etc. controlled internal agglomeration along with particles size. The maximum amount of surface area was observed by using maximum chain length of PEG and CTAB.