Ordered Mesoporous Silicas Containing Imidazolium Substructures for Solid-Liquid Extraction of Metallic Anions $$\operatorname{Re} {\text{O}}_{4}^{ - }$$

Imidazole-functionalized mesoporous silicas are synthesized by sol-gel process in order to extract metallic anions. For the synthesis of these materials, 1-[3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl]imidazole is used as the functional precursor and tetraethoxysilane as the cross-linking agent. It is found that the synthesized ordered materials containing ionic species are suitable for adsorption of Re(VII). The Kd values of $$\operatorname{Re} {\text{O}}_{4}^{ - }$$ increase with increasing the length of the alkyl substituents ranging from 90 to 7 × 103.