Nanoporous Materials and Its Applications

Order forms of nanoporous materials have been synthesized in a variety of hexagonal, cubic, and lamellar phases through the reaction of inorganic species in the presence of surfactant self-assemblies as supramolecular templates [۱]. These materials have attracted vast interest because of their potential application as catalysts [۲-۵], solid phase microextraction (SPME) [۶, ۷], metal scavengers [۸], preconcentration of metals [۹, ۱۰] and in the modified electrodes [۱۱-۱۳].Up to now, the synthesis pathways, which rely on the competition between hydrophilic and hydrophobic entities are not full understood. They involve interfacial chemistry that is studied here in the purpose to i) improvement the quality of the material, ii) find novel routes for metal functionalization and iii) modify the hydrophobicity of the surface. The materials were characterized using various techniques: elemental analysis, atomic absorption, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, ion chromatography, XRD, FT-IR, UV-visible and solid state NMR.Taking advantage of the electrostatic interface between the silanolate groups and surfactant head groups in the as-synthesis form of MTS, cobalt (III) complexes were directly ion exchanged with surfactant in ethanol solution. The adsorbed complex is either in pure electrostatic interaction with the surface or grafted at the surface within the channels depending on the nature of the complex. This method provides a novel post-synthesis metal modification route that preserves the channel structure and, saves a calcination step in comparison with other synthesis routes [۱۴-۱۶].