Abstract
Mesoporous silica MCM-41 with the hexagonally ordered mesoporous structure was sintered in air or N2 in order to obtain bulk sintered bodies with highly ordered mesopores. Although XRD patterns showed that the ordering of the mesoporous structure of MCM-41 disappeared during sintering at 700 ˚C in air, the sintered samples with the porosity of 10-50% showed significantly low thermal conductivities in comparison with conventional porous materials. Moreover the ordering of the mesoporous structure was maintained in N2 at higher temperature than in air, because MCM-41 shows higher thermal stability in the absence of oxygen.
E-mail: ohtaki@mm.kyushu-u.ac.jp
