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Mesoporous materials with well-defined pore size and structure have applications in a wide range of topics from catalysis, environment and medicine to electronics. This work presents the methods and procedures for preparing functional mesoporous materials for applications in the environment from removal of toxic metals to clean synthesis of fine chemicals.Magnetic mesoporous silica (magMCM-41) of large surface area (800 m2 g-1) and high magnetization (8.30 emu g-1) was prepared by grafting 10 nm magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in the silica matrix, and this highly dispersible material can be easily separated from aqueous solution by a magnetic field.Functionalization of the surface with selected ligands and metal complexes creates powerful capabilities for chemical separation and catalysis. Fe3+-magMCM-41 prepared by grafting aminopropyls and then adsorbing Fe3+ was found to be a highly selective adsorbent which adsorbed only As(V) and Cr(VI) oxyanions (i.e. 70 and 100 mg g-1, respectively) without any Cu(II). Meanwhile, the catalytic performances of modified materials were tested for Knoevenagel condensation reactions. The result showed the conversion excessed 97%.
About the author
Dr. Xinqing CHEN, Associate Professor, obtained his Ph.D degree in Chemical Engineering from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research focus on design and application of nanostructure materials. He achieved 2010 Hong Kong Young Scientist Award in Engineering Science and published more than 15 SCI journal papers with H-index=10.
