STUDY OF MESOPOROUS SILICA MATERIALS BY SMALL ANGLE X-RAY SCATTERING

Small angle X-ray scattering experiments have been performed to study the microstructure of mesoporous silica materials prepared by condensation of tetraethylorthosilicate using non-ionic alkylpolyethyleneoxide (AEO₉) and ionic cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactant as templates. It is the pores within the nanometre range that produce the main scattering. The scattering of the pure silica systems obey Porod's law. The scattering of the systems with templates remaining in the pores show positive deviations from Porod's law. This may be because the templates produce some additional scattering background and then make the scattering of pores distorted. The results show that the full removal of templates from the pores of the materials by Soxhlet extraction is very easy for AEO₉, but it is difficult for CTAB. The positive deviation correction is also performed.