Preparation of Mesoporous Silica and Carbon Materials with MultilengthScale Pores and Hydrogen Sorption Application

A facile method was developed for the preparation of bimodal mesoporous siliceous materials with nanostructured pores in which a cationic organic template, nhexadecyltrimethylammonium hydroxide, was employed as a base catalyst as well as a mesopore structuredirecting agent during the slow condensation of tetraethoxysilane. It was possible to alter the pore orientations of smaller pores by adding neutral auxiliary templates such as Brij76 and P123. A series of biomodal mesoporous carbons was also obtained from the bimodal mesoporous silica materials through a nanocasting process. The resulting bimodal mesoporous carbons exhibited decent hydrogen uptake values at 77 K. The maximum hydrogen uptake was 1.33 wt. for the sample having the narrowest pores, while keeping a relatively large pore volume. © WileyVCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2009