Effect of cosolvent organic molecules on the adsorption and structural properties of soft-templated ordered...

Ordered mesoporous aluminas with high surface areas (up to 783 m(2)/g), large pore volumes (up to 0.82 cm(3)/g) and the presence of complementary micropores (up to 0.17 cm(3)/g) are synthesized with Pluronic® F127 or P123 triblock copolymers in a one-pot synthesis of metal alkoxide, template and cosolvent molecules such as 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene or 1,3,5-triisopropylbenzene in an acidic ethanol solution at 15 °C. Materials are characterized by nitrogen adsorption analysis, small-angle X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy.