Improved hydrophobicity of inorganic–organic hybrid mesoporous silica with cage-like pores

International audience; Hydrophobic ordered mesoporous silica particles with cage-like pores (SBA-1 type) were prepared through co-condensation of phenyltriethoxysilane (PhTES) and tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) at different TEOS/PhTES molar ratios. It is shown that the hydrophobic character of the particles is enhanced by increasing the phenyl loading (decreasing the TEOS/PhTES molar ratio) and that it could be further enhanced by subsequent trimethylsilyl (TMS) grafting on remaining silanol groups (TMS-PhSBA-1 sample). This increase of hydrophobicity has been evidenced on the internal surface (mesoporosity) of the particles using water adsorption and, on the external surface of the partic…