Synthesis of ordered MCM-48 by introducing economical anionic surfactant as co-template

Highly ordered mesoporous MCM-48 molecular sieve has been successfully synthesized using mixed surfactant of cationic cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as templates at low surfactant-to-silica ratio (molar) of 0.177. Our work provides a commercially important approach to synthesize ordered mesoporous material by introducing cheap anionic surfactant SDS as co-template. The molar composition of surfactant mixture was CTAB: SDS=6.08. The characterization of the material shows that the pore diameter and BET surface area of as-prepared MCM-48 is 2.72 nm and 861.8 m(2) g(-1), respectively. The possible formation mechanism of MCM-48 using mixed surfactant template has been discussed according to Gibbs free energy theory and surfactant packing parameter theory. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.