Characterization of mesoporous material MCM-41 after surfactant removal by washing method with HCl-ethanol.

This research aimed to find out the characteristic of mesoporous material MCM-41. The synthesis process of the mesoporous material MCM-41 was carried out with the hydrothermal method and the structure-directing agents are cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTAC) surfactants, and the silica source is ludox HS-40. The surfactant removal process was achieved with washing method using HCl-ethanol. The synthesized mesoporous material MCM-41 was characterized using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) to identify crystallinity and amorphousness, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) to identify the functional group, and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to examine its surface morphology. The analysis result with XRD showed characteristic peaks with sharp peaks at 2θ around 2.45° and several low peaks at 4.00°, 4.57°, and 5.39° which were consistent with the MCM-41 diffractogram pattern in previous studies. The FTIR spectrum showed absorption bands at the wave number which was in accordance with the mesoporous material MCM-41 in the form of low peaks at wave numbers 2926.01 cm−1 (asymmetric stretching vibration) and 2854.65 cm−1 (symmetric stretching vibration) which are characteristic absorptions of methylene (-CH2) derived from the CTAC surfactant. The image resulted from SEM had an almost irregularly spherical shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]