Abstract
The SolGel method is a process for the preparation of silica glasses. This process consists of gelation of silica sols prepared from the hydrolysis of alkoxides, and sintering of pressed powders of the obtained gels. In particular, gels consisting of spherical silica particles can be compressed as close-packed powder compacts and converted into dense materials by sintering. Recently, many reports have appeared on mesoporous silica with a range of pore diameters from 2 to 50nm. Mesoporous silica is synthesized using surfactants that are eliminated at high temperatures, and can be prepared as spherical particles. It is expected that sintered materials can also be obtained from spherical particles of mesoporous silica in the same way as from the usual spherical silica particles. Here we briefly report the results of our study in which we sintered powder compacts of mono-dispersed spherical particles of mesoporous silica and successfully obtained dense sintered compacts.
