Preparation of mesoporous silica with pelagic clay and its optical property

To obtain mesoporous silica with prime properties, we used pelagic clay as the raw material with the precipitation method. According to the specific surface area (SSA) of production, we optimized the technical conditions and characterized it with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The photoluminescence (PL) and photoluminescence excitation (PLE) of mesoporous silica were tested too. FTIR indicated that the products were pure amorphous silica. XRD showed that the silica was MCM-41. The N2 adsorption test showed that it belongs to the type of Langmuir IV, the aperture is about 2.9 nm, and the distribution is uniform. The SEM test indicated that the silica aggregation is branch-like, and the mesoporous silica is hexagonal with mesh arrangement. PL and PLE spectra proved that the intensities of the PL and PLE of mesoporous silica increase with increasing SSA.