Synthetic chemistry with periodic mesostructures at high pressure

Over the last two decades, researchers have studied extensively the synthesis of mesostructured materials, which could be useful for drug delivery, catalytic cracking of petroleum, or reinforced plastics, among other applications. However, until very recently researchers used only temperature as a thermodynamic variable for synthesis, completely neglecting pressure. In this Account, we show how pressure can affect the synthetic chemistry of periodic mesoporous structures with desirable effects. In its simplest application, pressure can crystallize the pore walls of periodic mesoporous silicas, which are difficult to crystallize otherwise. The motivation for the synthesis of periodic mesoporous silica materials (with pore sizes from 2 to 50 nm) 20 years ago was to replace the microporous zeolites (which have pore sizes of <2 nm) in petroleum cracking applications, because the larger pore size of mesoporous materials allows for faster transport of larger molecules. However, these mesoporous materials could not replace zeolite materials because they showed lower hydrothermal stability and lower catalytic activity. This reduced performance has been attributed to the amorphous nature of the mesoporous materials' channel walls. To address this problem, we developed the concept of "nanocasting at high pressure". Through this approach, we produced hitherto-unavailable, periodic mesostructured silicas with crystalline pore walls. In nanocasting, we compress a periodic mesostructured composite (e.g. a periodic mesoporous silica with carbon-filled pores) and subsequently heat it to induce the selective crystallization of one of the two phases. We attain the necessary high pressure for synthesis using piston-cylinder and multianvil apparatuses. Using periodic mesostructured silica/carbon nanocomposites as starting material, we have produced periodic mesoporous coesite and periodic mesoporous quartz. The quartz material is highly stable under harsh hydrothermal conditions (800°C in pure steam), verifying that crystallinity in the channel walls of periodic mesoporous silicas increases their hydrothermal stability. Even without including the carbon phase in the silica pores, we could obtain mesoporous coesite materials. We found similar behavior for periodic mesoporous carbons, which convert into transparent, mesoporous, nanopolycrystalline diamond at high-pressure. We also show that periodic mesoporous materials can serve as precursors for nanocrystals of high-pressure phases. We obtained nearly monodisperse, discrete stishovite nanocrystals from periodic mesoporous silicas and coesite nanocrystals from periodic mesoporous organosilicas. The stishovite nanocrystals disperse in water and form colloidal solutions of individual stishovite nanocrystals. The stishovite nanocrystals could be useful for machining, drilling, and polishing. Overall, the results show that periodic mesoporous materials are suitable starting materials for the synthesis of nanoporous high-pressure phases and nanocrystals of high pressure phases. The substantially enhanced hydrothermal stability seen in periodic mesoporous silicas synthesized at high pressure demonstrates that high pressure can be a useful tool to produce porous materials with improved properties. We expect that synthesis using mesostructures at high pressure can be extended to many other materials beyond silicas and carbons. Presumably, this chemistry can also be extended from mesoporous to microporous and macroporous materials.