On the underestimated impact of the gelation temperature on macro- and mesoporosity in monolithic silica

The preparation of monolithic SiO2 with bimodal porosity using a special sol–gel procedure (“Nakanishi process”) generally shows a pronounced sensitivity towards several physico-chemical parameters of the initial solution (concentrations, precursors, pH, temperature, etc.). Thus, temporal and spatial variations of these parameters during the sol–gel reactions can affect the final meso- and macropore space with respect to the pore size distributions and homogeneity. In this study we thoroughly examine the sol–gel reaction in terms of the impact of temperature accuracy and homogeneity during the gelation and their effect on meso- and macropore space. The in-depth characterization of the macroporosity in monolithic SiO2 rods, prepared by utilizing a highly homogeneous and accurate temperature profile, shows that a decrease of only 1.5 °C during the reaction doubles the mean size of the macropores in the analyzed temperature ranges (22.0–28.0 °C and 33.5–36.5 °C). Rheological measurements of the gelation points and the viscosity of the starting solutions prove that a higher reaction rate is the main reason for this marked temperature-sensitivity. Furthermore, the mesoporosity is affected to a surprising extent by the applied small temperature differences during the gelation reaction. This phenomenon is shown to be mainly caused by the temperature-dependent differences in macropore and skeleton dimensions and an inhomogeneous distribution of mesopore sizes within the skeleton. In essence, our study reveals that the impact of temperature on the formation of meso- and macroscale dimensions during the sol–gel process has been underestimated so far. The impact of a poor temperature homogeneity during monolith synthesis is exemplarily demonstrated by the application of monolithic silica capillary columns in HPLC.