Two kinds of ZnO/SiO 2 composite (labled as SZ-1 and SZ-2) were synthesized by sol–gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) spectra and Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform (DRIFT) spectra. Water adsorption on the prepared sample was studied by in situ DRIFT. The as-synthesized SZ-1 and SZ-2 sample have different surface property due to the various aging methods in the sample preparation processes, thus showing different results of water adsorption. The adsorption sites (Si atom in Si–O–Si bond) on the surface of SZ-2 for water molecule are occupied by the –OCH 3 group and the hydrophilicity of SZ-2 is weaker, in comparison to SZ-1, which inhibits the formation of water film and ultimately decreases desulfurization performance of SZ-2. So, the desulfurization performance can be changed by altering the hydrophilicity of sorbent.
In this paper, we present a simple way to achieve the controllable synthesis of composite ZnO@SiO 2 materials. γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) was chosen as the silicon source, and pre-synthesized zinc bromoacetate (ZnBA) was selected the functional metal precursor. By simply regulating the water–ethanol volume ratio, it was possible to simultaneously regulate the sizes of both the composite material and the metal nanoparticles . With an increase in the hydroalcoholic volume ratio from 1:1–3:1, the sizes of the silica materials were increased from 615 to 3020 nm, while the sizes of the ZnO nanoparticles were increased from 3.75 to 6.25 nm. Three ZnO@SiO 2 materials with blue, green, and yellow fluorescence were obtained. More importantly, the hydroalcoholic volume ratio and the particle size of the material showed a good linear relationship. In addition, a “rapid nucleation–aggregation growth” mechanism was proposed, and the controlled growth of metal oxide nanoparticles was explored.