A gel-derived mesoporous silica reference material for surface analysis by gas sorption 1. Textural features

Current interest in monolithic mesoporous matrices requiring carefully tailored architectures has dictated the requirement for a new generation of standard materials for textural analysis. Accordingly, the textural characteristics of a mesoporous gel-derived silica monolith have been investigated by nitrogen sorption. Specific surface area (165.5±1.5 m2 g−1), specific pore volume (0.986±0.020 cm3 g−1), average pore size (119.2±2.7 Å) and distribution are reported. The properties of the mesoporous silica were found to compare favourably with those of commercially available certified reference materials for BET surface area and pore size analysis. The primary advantage of the gel-silica monolith in this application is the elimination of errors associated with powder sampling.