High-Surface-Area SBA-15 with Enhanced Mesopore Connectivity by the Addition of Poly(vinyl alcohol)

The influence of ploy(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) in the synthesis of SBA-15 was investigated. it was the found that by the addition of PVA, the surface earth and porosity of SBA-15 is increased while the srtucture and size of the meaoporous remain unchanged. Nitrogen sorption measurements indicate that PVA introduces additional pores sizes found 2nm into the pore wall, Thus, a simple way of improving the porosity of mesoporous silica is presented that could enchance transport of substrates through the porous system, important for catalytic applications and also benefical for replication and nanocasting purposes. We furthermore, show that a heterogenous catalyst Pt/SBA-15, with high surface area can be prepared by the addition of PVA stabilized platinum nanoparticle sols.