Preparation, characterization and adsorption properties studies of 3-(methacryloyloxy)propyltrimethoxysilane modified and polymerized sol-gel mesoporous SBA-15 silica molecular sieves

Mesoporous SBA-15 molecular sieves, with large surface area and homogeneous pore diameters, are commonly used as catalysts and adsorbents. In this work. SBA-15 was functionalized with 3-(methacryloyloxy)propyltrirnethoxysilane (MPTMS) and then polymerized sol-gel onto the channel walls. The new materials were characterized by solid-state NMR, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen adsorption-desorption measurements, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and elemental analysis. The adsorption properties of SBA-15, MPTMS modified SBA-15 and polymerized sol-gel SBA-15 to Rhodamine B (RB) were studied comparably. The modified SBA-15 materials have effective adsorption characters to RB. These results demonstrate that these new materials have potential applications in the treatment of RB pollution from environment. (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.