Surfactant-Assisted Synthesis of Mesoporous Alumina Showing Continuously Adjustable Pore Sizes

Alumina molecular sieves with continuously adjustable pore sizes are achieved by use of cationic surfactant-assisted synthesis, a technique which is reported for the first time. The “hydrolysis-retarding” role played by triethanolamine allows control of the competition between aluminum hydrolysis/condensation reactions and organic-inorganic self-assembling processes. This leads to thermally stable mesoporous alumina molecular sieves, whose pore size can then be tuned by the adjustment of the molar ratio of the reactants.