Spherical silica agglomerates possessing hierarchical porosity prepared by spray drying of MCM-41 and MCM-48 nanospheres

Hierarchically ordered porous materials possessing both meso- and macropores can be obtained by agglomeration of spherical primary particles of mesoporous MCM-41 and MCM-48 materials using the spray drying technique. A highly interconnected bimodal pore network is obtained due to the intra- and inter-particle pore systems within the micron-sized spherical agglomerates. Further packing of the agglomerates will result in a three-modal hierarchical pore system, where the first level of porosity originates from the ordered mesopores inside the primary particles, the second level is a result of the particle internal porosity, and the third level is due to the voids between the agglomerates. The …