New mesostructured organosilica with chiral sugar derived structures: nice host for gold nanoparticles stabilisation

In this paper we describe the synthesis of functionalised mesoporous organosilicas containing a mannitol derivative in the framework. For this purpose, a bis-silylated precursor 3,4-Di-O-[3-(triethoxysilylpropyl)carbamate]-1,2:5,6-di-O-isopropylidene-D-mannitol was prepared by coupling of 1,2:5,6-di-O-isopropylidene-D-mannitol with 3-(triethoxysilylpropyl)isocyanate. The framework-functionalised materials were obtained in one step by the "direct synthesis" method which consists of a co-hydrolysis and polycondensation of a bis-silylated mannitol precursor with tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) in the presence of a non-ionic triblock co-polymer (P123) as structure-directing agent. Interestingly, deprotection of the 1,2,5,6 OH functional groups occurred during the material synthesis. The obtained solids were characterized by (13)C and (29)Si CP-MAS NMR, N(2) adsorption-desorption, powder X-ray diffraction, TEM and elemental analysis. We have shown that, the OH functional groups, which are released during the synthesis of the mesoporous silica, can be used for chelation of ions and stabilisation of nanoparticles. The subsequent growth of gold (0) nanoparticles in the wall has been investigated and evidenced.