A study on the growth of Cr₂O₃ in ordered mesoporous silica and its replication

A systematic study on the growth of Cr2O3 in three-dimensional cubic ordered mesoporous silica (KIT-6) and its replication through nanocasting is reported. By changing the loading time and amount of precursor, the size and shape of the obtained replica could be controlled to some extent. More interestingly, in contrast to previously published studies, when KIT-6 with an aging temperature of 100 °C, which has a high degree of interconnectivity, was used as a hard template, a cubic ordered mesoporous Cr2O3 replica with an open uncoupled subframework structure and reduced symmetry was obtained. Formation of a replica with different symmetry and uncoupled subframework structure is not only related to the degree of interconnectivity of the parent, but also strongly depends on the type of metal oxide and its growth mechanism in the silica template. Nanocasting of Cr2O3 with a low loading results in a replica with monomodal pore size distribution that has same symmetry as the hard template, whereas increasing the loading amount alters the symmetry of the replica and yields a replica with bimodal distribution.