Confinement of zinc oxide nanoparticles in ordered mesoporous silica MCM-41

Abstract

Mesoporous silica (MS) and zinc loaded MS composites have been synthesized and characterized using high resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV-visible spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, N 2 adsorption-desorption isotherms, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Thermal treatment of the zinc loaded MS composite lead to the formation of ZnO-MS composite. The well ordered uniform pore structure of MS (pore size ∼3.4 nm) is found to remain stable even after 30% Zn loading albeit decrease in the pore size 1.2 nm indicates the formation of ZnO inside the pores. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.