Adsorption and thermogravimetric methods for monitoring surface and structural changes in ordered mesoporous silicas induced by their chemical modification

Abstract

The current work demonstrates that the standard adsorption analysis has a limited applicability for characterization of chemically modified porous silicas. Since low-pressure nitrogen adsorption isotherms are sensitive to the surface changes caused by chemical modification of silicas, these isotherms were successfully used to evaluate their surface heterogeneity during different stages of modification. The surface analysis was accomplished by using adsorption energy distributions and high-resolution comparative plots.