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Mesoporous Materials 2020: From Synthesis to Applications

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A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 10737

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Ramón Moreno Tost

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Guest Editor

Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Cristalografía y Mineralogía (Unidad Asociada al ICP-CSIC), Facultad de Ciencias, Campus de Teatinos, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain
Interests: heterogeneous catalysis; mesoporous solids synthesis; acid–base catalysis; biomass valorization by means of catalytic processes
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Porous materials are structures with a high specific surface area, narrow pore size distribution, and tuneable pore size distribution. These materials have emerged as interesting frameworks for the scientific community due their high potential in various areas, including adsorption, separation, sensing, and catalysis. The rational design of these porous structures has led to innovative materials with a wide range of structures, such as hexagonal, lamellar, rod-like, or cubic, in silicates, aluminosilicates, metal oxides, or carbons. The obtained materials display a wide variety of funcionalities that currently make this field one of the most developed in materials science. However, many advances in the field are recently diversifying this exciting area of work to promising applications in drug delivery, tumoral therapy, biomedicine, desing of tuneable catalysts, etc.

This Special Issue aims to provide a range of original contributions detailing the synthesis, design, characterization, and applications in different areas of porous materials (e.g., catalysis, separation, sensing, adsorption, drug delivery, etc).

Dr. Ramón Moreno Tost
Guest Editor

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Keywords

Mesoporous materials
Metal organic frameworks (MOFs)
Metal oxides
Zeolites
Carbon
Adsorption
Catalysis
Catalytic support
Biomolecules
Drug delivery

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 4520 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Perspective on Adsorbent Materials Based Impregnated MgSiO₃ with Crown Ethers for Palladium Recovery

by Mihaela Ciopec, Oana Grad, Adina Negrea, Narcis Duteanu, Petru Negrea, Cristina Paul, Catalin Ianăși, Giannin Mosoarca and Cosmin Vancea

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(19), 10718; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms221910718 - 03 Oct 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1614

Abstract

The study of new useful, efficient and selective structures for the palladium ions’ recovery has led to the development of a new series of macromolecules. Thus, this study presents a comparative behavior of two crown benzene ethers that modify the magnesium silicate surface used as adsorbent for palladium. These crown ethers are dibenzo18-crown-6 (DB18C6) and dibenzo 30-crown-10 (DB30C10). The obtained materials were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The specific surface area (BET) and point of zero charge (PZC) of the two materials were determined. The palladium ions’ recovery from synthetic aqueous solutions studies aimed to establish the adsorption mechanism. For this desideratum, the kinetic, equilibrium and thermodynamic studies show that MgSiO₃-DB30C10 have a higher adsorption capacity (35.68 mg g⁻¹) compared to MgSiO₃-DB18C6 (21.65 mg g⁻¹). Thermodynamic studies highlight that the adsorption of Pd(II) on the two studied materials are spontaneous and endothermic processes. The positive values of the entropy (ΔS⁰) suggest that the studied adsorption processes show a higher disorder at the liquid/solid interface. Desorption studies were also performed, and it was found that the degree of desorption was 98.3%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mesoporous Materials 2020: From Synthesis to Applications)

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22 pages, 6265 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparison of Cr(VI) Adsorption Using Synthetic Schwertmannite Obtained by Fe³⁺ Hydrolysis and Fe²⁺ Oxidation: Kinetics, Isotherms and Adsorption Mechanism

by Justyna Ulatowska, Łukasz Stala and Izabela Polowczyk

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(15), 8175; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms22158175 - 30 Jul 2021

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 1879

Abstract

Good sorption properties and simple synthesis route make schwertmannite an increasingly popular adsorbent. In this work, the adsorption properties of synthetic schwertmannite towards Cr(VI) were investigated. This study aimed to compare the properties and sorption performance of adsorbents obtained by two methods: Fe³⁺ hydrolysis (SCH_A) and Fe²⁺ oxidation (SCH_B). To characterise the sorbents before and after Cr(VI) adsorption, specific surface area, particle size distribution, density, and zeta potential were determined. Additionally, optical micrographs, SEM, and FTIR analyses were performed. Adsorption experiments were performed in varying process conditions: pH, adsorbent dosage, contact time, and initial concentration. Adsorption isotherms were fitted by Freundlich, Langmuir, and Temkin models. Pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, intraparticle diffusion, and liquid film diffusion models were used to fit the kinetics data. Linear regression was used to estimate the parameters of isotherm and kinetic models. The maximum adsorption capacity resulting from the fitted Langmuir isotherm is 42.97 and 17.54 mg·g⁻¹ for SCH_A and SCH_B. Results show that the adsorption kinetics follows the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Both iron-based adsorbents are suitable for removing Cr(VI) ions from aqueous solutions. Characterisation of the adsorbents after adsorption suggests that Cr(VI) adsorption can be mainly attributed to ion exchange with SO₄²⁻ groups. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mesoporous Materials 2020: From Synthesis to Applications)

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13 pages, 11851 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Synthesis of Vertically Aligned Porous Silica Thin Films Functionalized by Silver Ions

by Andrii Fedorchuk, Alain Walcarius, Magdalena Laskowska, Neus Vila, Paweł Kowalczyk, Krzysztof Cpałka and Łukasz Laskowski

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(14), 7505; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms22147505 - 13 Jul 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2615

Abstract

In this work, we have developed a chemical procedure enabling the preparation of highly ordered and vertically aligned mesoporous silica films containing selected contents of silver ions bonded inside the mesopore channels via anchoring propyl-carboxyl units. The procedure involves the electrochemically assisted self-assembly co-condensation of tetraethoxysilane and (3-cyanopropyl)triethoxysilane in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as a surfactant, the subsequent hydrolysis of cyano groups into carboxylate ones, followed by their complexation with silver ions. The output materials have been electrochemically characterized with regard to the synthesis effectiveness in order to confirm and quantify the presence of the silver ions in the material. The mesostructure has been observed by transmission electron microscopy. We have pointed out that it is possible to finely tune the functionalization level by controlling the co-condensation procedure, notably the concentration of (3-cyanopropyl)triethoxysilane in the synthesis medium. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mesoporous Materials 2020: From Synthesis to Applications)

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Review

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14 pages, 1216 KiB

Open AccessReview

Prussian Blue: A Safe Pigment with Zeolitic-Like Activity

by Joan Estelrich and Maria Antònia Busquets

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(2), 780; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms22020780 - 15 Jan 2021

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 4060

Abstract

Prussian blue (PB) and PB analogues (PBA) are coordination network materials that present important similarities with zeolites concretely with their ability of adsorbing cations. Depending on the conditions of preparation, which is cheap and easy, PB can be classified into soluble PB and insoluble PB. The zeolitic-like properties are mainly inherent to insoluble form. This form presents some defects in its cubic lattice resulting in an open structure. The vacancies make PB capable of taking up and trapping ions or molecules into the lattice. Important adsorption characteristics of PB are a high specific area (370 m² g⁻¹ determined according the BET theory), uniform pore diameter, and large pore width. PB has numerous applications in many scientific and technological fields. PB are assembled into nanoparticles that, due to their biosafety and biocompatibility, can be used for biomedical applications. PB and PBA have been shown to be excellent sorbents of radioactive cesium and radioactive and nonradioactive thallium. Other cations adsorbed by PB are K⁺, Na⁺, NH₄⁺, and some divalent cations. PB can also capture gaseous molecules, hydrocarbons, and even luminescent molecules such as 2-aminoanthracene. As the main adsorptive application of PB is the selective removal of cations from the environment, it is important to easily separate the sorbent of the purified solution. To facilitate this, PB is encapsulated into a polymer or coats a support, sometimes magnetic particles. Finally, is remarkable to point out that PB can be recycled and the adsorbed material can be recovered. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mesoporous Materials 2020: From Synthesis to Applications)

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