Synthesis of mesoporous silica spheres utilizing in tandem with POSS-based block copolymer and anion surfactant as dual-template

In this work, novel mesoporous silica spheres were prepared by calcination of golf-shaped silica microspheres, which were fabricated via a typical sol-gel method by using synthetic amphiphilic block copolymer poly(acrylate isobutyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane)- b -poly(dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate co-styrene)) (PAPOSS- b -(PDMAEMA- co -PSt) and anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as dual-template. Firstly, three different POSS-based block copolymers were synthesized through subsequent homopolymerization of acrylate isobutyl POSS and chain extension of dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) and styrene with various feed ratios via reversible transfer radical polymerization (RAFT). These amphiphilic block polymers and SDS were utilized as cooperative template to golf-shaped silica microspheres. The electrostatic interaction between protonated PDMAEMA segments and anion surfactant as well as the strong interaction between PAPOSS segments and silicon source plays the dominant role in forming golf-shaped silica spheres. Moreover, the surface morphology of silica spheres can be tuned by varying molar ratio of PDMAEMA/PAPOSS. The resulting golf-shaped silica microspheres were further calcined to give mesoporous silica spheres which exhibited a BET surface area of 1031 m 2  g −1 , a total pore volume of 0.826 cm 3  g −1 , and a narrow pore size distribution centered at 3.20 nm.