Spray Drying Synthesis of Hierarchically Porous Spherical Particles by Using Mesostructured Silica Nanoparticles as a Building Block

Abstract

Hierarchically porous materials are fabricated by assembling mesostructured nanoparticles via spray drying. Well-dispersed mesostructured silica nanoparticles (MSN), whose particle size was ca 30 nm, were prepared by a thermal deposition method. By spray drying a MSN colloid solution, MSN were assembled into spherical secondary particles. After calcination, the spherical particles have two types of mesopores, mesopores of 3 nm in size inside of calcined MSN and larger inter-nanoparticle mesopores of about 15 ∼ 20 nm.