Facile route to synthesise larger mesoporous nickel silicate coated on carbon nanotubes and application for dye removal

Presented is a facile route to synthesise mesoporous nickel silicate coated on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with a larger hole based on the mesoporous silica coated on the CNTs, the pore size of the mesoporous silica coated on the CNTs was enlarged from 2.72 to 7.8 nm after a hydrothermal reaction with nickel ions. Compared with other work for expanding the size of the pore, the authors´ presented method is low cost, simple and highly efficient. More importantly, this method shows great potential in applying other types of mesoporous materials such as SBA-15 and so on, all of which indicate that both the mesoporous nickel silicate coated on the CNTs and the mesoporous silica coated on the CNTs could serve as good candidates for adsorption on the organic pollutants.