engleski

Sol-gel synthesis of mesoporous silica with biodegradable templates

Mesoporous materials have been studied for a wide range of applications in catalysis, adsorption and separation processes, sensors, drug delivery and enzyme immobilization due to their large surface area and tunable pore size [1, 2]. Sol-gel synthesis is a versatile method that provides many possibilities for tailoring a material with tunable pore size and different morphological properties. Gelatin makes a good template because it has good surfactivity and contains N-H func-tional groups which tend to strongly interact with silanol groups. By changing the pH of the solution it is possible to regulate the size of the pores. Due to its biodegradability and nontoxicity it is convenient for synthesizing materials that will be used in biomedi-cine or drug delivery [2]. In this study, porous silica has been prepared by sol-gel process using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as a source of silica and the biodegradable gelatin as the structure directing agent. The samples were synthesized by a two step process, firstly hydrolyzing TEOS under acidic conditions and later adding sodium hydroxide to accelerate the gelling process. The products were analyzed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and N2 adsorption- desorption isotherms. It was noticed that samples prepared with acetic acid and those prepared with hydrochloric acid have different structures and pore size.

sol-gel; mesoporous; gelatin

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