Template synthesis of 3-D bimodal ordered porous silica

A dual template synthesis combined with a modified bulk sol-gel process was used to prepare the three dimensional bimodal ordered porous silica, in which the macropore wall is mesoporous and both the pores are interconnected. The macropores were replicated from the template of the dried polystyrene colloidal crystal after being removed by calcination at high temperature, whislt the mesopores were achieved by burning off the surfactant in the gel. The ordered morphologies and interconnection of both the macropores and the mesopores were evidenced by the characterizations with SEM and TEM attached with electron diffraction. Nitrogen adsorption results also confirmed the interconnectivity, sizes and their distribution of the two sorts of pores. The effect of surfactant concentration and calcination conditions on mesopore size and its distribution was also investigated.