Organosilica Nanoparticles with Ordered Trimodal Porosity and Selectively Functionalized Mesopores

Selective functionalization of hierarchical porous materials is of outmost importance for many different applications. A major problem of the functionalization arises from the functionalization process itself. A novel gas phase functionalization was used to modify the surface of newly developed inorganic-organic hybrid nanomaterials with hierarchical trimodal porosity, using 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTMS). It was found that the functionalization of mesopores of the material is possible, while the micropores of the material stay selectively non-functionalized after oxidation. Interestingly, the initial mesopores of the material are selectively modified, up to a degree that can be reached usually only by co-condensation approaches, which are however difficult to perform on PMO-derived porous materials.