Synthesis of Porous Silica by Using Denatured Collagen as a Template

Abstract

Porous silica was synthesized by using denatured collagen as a template. The shape, pore characteristics and synthesis mechanism for porous silica synthesized by using denatured collagen (DC-PS) was compared with that synthesized by using collagen fibril (CF-PS) as a template. It was found from scanning electron microscopy observation that DC-PS had a structure in which particles of several micrometers were aggregated. We also carried out N₂ adsorption / desorption isotherm measurement in order to evaluate the porous property of porous silica and revealed that both DC-PS and CF-PS possessed only micro pores. Detailed analysis of micro pores by using Saito-Foley method cleared that the pore size distribution of DC-PS was narrower than that of CF-PS. Moreover, it was revealed that silica sources interacted easier with denatured collagen than collagen fibril by thermogravimetric analysis. These results suggested that the arrangement of collagen molecules affected the porous properties of silica.