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Advances in Porous Inorganic Materials

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2011) | Viewed by 26178

Special Issue Editor

Equipe Matéraiux à Porosité Contrôlée, Institut de Science des Matériaux de Mulhouse, CNRS LRC 7228, Université de Haute Alsace, 68093 Mulhouse, France
Interests: mesoporous oxides; materials with hierarchized porosity; sol-gel synthesis; mechanisms of formation; organic and inorganic functionalization; shaping, encapsulation/vectorization; adsorption; catalysis; thermal insulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Among inorganic materials, porous ones have generated increasing interest in different scientific disciplines such as physics, chemistry and biology. Porous (from micro- to macroporous) inorganic materials exhibit very interesting characteristics due to the nature of their framework (crystalline or not) and the porosity that make them highly desirable in several application fields such as heterogeneous catalysis, adsorption, ion-exchange, sensor devices, medical therapy, and charges for polymers. Moreover, they also present great interest for nanoconfinement effects, study of adsorption phenomena, hard templating…The current evelopments of these materials are highly oriented by environmental concerns both at the synthesis level (low energy cost process and green reactants) and at the use level (pollutant adsorbents, gas storage, energy storage, and heterogeneous catalysts).

Several strategies have been developed for the synthesis of tailor-made porous inorganic materials in terms of porosity, surface properties, morphology, architecture…The nature of the framework can be choose either for its inertness and impact on macroscopic properties such as mechanical properties and thermal resistance or its intrinsic characteristics (optical, magnetical, acididity or basicity…). Porosity can be controlled in terms of size (from few Å to several nm), spatial organization (2D, 3D, multimodal) and surface reactivity (functionalization) which can be of interest for size selectivity, molecular diffusion, macroscopic density... Combination of both in addition to the control of particle morphology and/or material architecture can lead to multifunctional materials with optimized properties. Thanks to their pore network characteristics, they offer numerous advantages when high loading, controlled release, molecule loneliness, large specific surface area, and easy matter transfer are required.

This special issue aims at covering  recent progress and novel trends in the field of the elaboration of porous inorganic materials (synthesis strategies, characterization methods, and applications).

Dr. Bénédicte Lebeau
Guest Editor

Keywords

  • micro-, meso- and macroporous inorganic solids
  • multiscale porosity
  • tailored architecture
  • morphology control
  • porous sorbents
  • heterogeneous catalyst
  • drug delivery systems
  • multifunctional porous inorganic materials

Published Papers (3 papers)

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2795 KiB  
Article
Elaboration of Prussian Blue Analogue/Silica Nanocomposites: Towards Tailor-Made Nano-Scale Electronic Devices
by Giulia Fornasieri, Merwen Aouadi, Emilie Delahaye, Patricia Beaunier, Dominique Durand, Eric Rivière, Pierre-Antoine Albouy, François Brisset and Anne Bleuzen
Materials 2012, 5(3), 385-403; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma5030385 - 05 Mar 2012
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 8848
Abstract
The research of new molecular materials able to replace classical solid materials in electronics has attracted growing attention over the past decade. Among these compounds photoswitchable Prussian blue analogues (PBA) are particularly interesting for the elaboration of new optical memories. However these coordination [...] Read more.
The research of new molecular materials able to replace classical solid materials in electronics has attracted growing attention over the past decade. Among these compounds photoswitchable Prussian blue analogues (PBA) are particularly interesting for the elaboration of new optical memories. However these coordination polymers are generally synthesised as insoluble powders that cannot be integrated into a real device. Hence their successful integration into real applications depends on an additional processing step. Nanostructured oxides elaborated by sol-gel chemistry combined with surfactant micelle templating can be used as nanoreactors to confine PBA precipitation and organize the functional nano-objects in the three dimensions of space. In this work we present the elaboration of different CoFe PBA/silica nanocomposites. Our synthetic procedure fully controls the synthesis of PBA in the porosity of the silica matrix from the insertion of the precursors up to the formation of the photomagnetic compound. We present results on systems from the simplest to the most elaborate: from disordered xerogels to ordered nanostructured films passing through mesoporous monoliths. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Porous Inorganic Materials)
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1182 KiB  
Article
Challenges and Strategies in the Synthesis of Mesoporous Alumina Powders and Hierarchical Alumina Monoliths
by Sarah Hartmann, Alexander Sachse and Anne Galarneau
Materials 2012, 5(2), 336-349; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma5020336 - 20 Feb 2012
Cited by 38 | Viewed by 8654
Abstract
A new rapid, very simple and one-step sol-gel strategy for the large-scale preparation of highly porous γ-Al2O3 is presented. The resulting mesoporous alumina materials feature high surface areas (400 m2 g−1), large pore volumes (0.8 mL g [...] Read more.
A new rapid, very simple and one-step sol-gel strategy for the large-scale preparation of highly porous γ-Al2O3 is presented. The resulting mesoporous alumina materials feature high surface areas (400 m2 g−1), large pore volumes (0.8 mL g−1) and the γ-Al2O3 phase is obtained at low temperature (500 °C). The main advantages and drawbacks of different preparations of mesoporous alumina materials exhibiting high specific surface areas and large pore volumes such as surfactant-nanostructured alumina, sol-gel methods and hierarchically macro-/mesoporous alumina monoliths have been analyzed and compared. The most reproducible synthesis of mesoporous alumina are given. Evaporation-Induced Self-Assembly (EISA) is the sole method to lead to nanostructured mesoporous alumina by direct templating, but it is a difficult method to scale-up. Alumina featuring macro- and mesoporosity in monolithic shape is a very promising material for in flow applications; an optimized synthesis is described. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Porous Inorganic Materials)
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378 KiB  
Article
Metal-Exchanged β Zeolites as Catalysts for the Conversion of Acetone to Hydrocarbons
by Aurora J. Cruz-Cabeza, Dolores Esquivel, César Jiménez-Sanchidrián and Francisco J. Romero-Salguero
Materials 2012, 5(1), 121-134; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma5010121 - 05 Jan 2012
Cited by 47 | Viewed by 8077
Abstract
Various metal-β zeolites have been synthesized under similar ion-exchange conditions. During the exchange process, the nature and acid strength of the used cations modified the composition and textural properties as well as the Brönsted and Lewis acidity of the final materials. Zeolites exchanged [...] Read more.
Various metal-β zeolites have been synthesized under similar ion-exchange conditions. During the exchange process, the nature and acid strength of the used cations modified the composition and textural properties as well as the Brönsted and Lewis acidity of the final materials. Zeolites exchanged with divalent cations showed a clear decrease of their surface Brönsted acidity and an increase of their Lewis acidity. All materials were active as catalysts for the transformation of acetone into hydrocarbons. Although the protonic zeolite was the most active in the acetone conversion (96.8% conversion), the metal-exchanged zeolites showed varied selectivities towards different products of the reaction. In particular, we found the Cu-β to have a considerable selectivity towards the production of isobutene from acetone (over 31% yield compared to 7.5% of the protonic zeolite). We propose different reactions mechanisms in order to explain the final product distributions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Porous Inorganic Materials)
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