Use of Polypropyleneimine Tetrahexacontaamine (DAB-Am-64) Dendrimer as a Single-Molecule Template To Produce Mesoporous Silicas

The use of DAB-Am-64 amine dendrimer as a single-molecule template to produce mesoporous cavities in silica sol−gels is reported. The method is meant to afford the synthesis of spheroidal cavities and is likely to enjoy generality, since there are a number of dendritic molecules commercially available today. X-ray diffraction confirms that a coherent distance of ∼25 Å is obtained upon calcination, and the modeling of nitrogen adsorption data by a modified Horvath-Kawazoe formalism for spherical cavities reveals that voids of ∼23 Å in diameter had been formed.