A systematic study of the formation of mesostructured silica using surfactant ruthenium complexes in high- and low-concentration regimes

Mesostructured silica can be prepared by surfactant templating either under conditions of low surfactant template concentration (so-called liquid crystal templating) or from a pre-formed mesophase at higher surfactant concentrations (true liquid crystal templating). In this study, the structural properties of such silica products prepared using a surfactant bipyridine complex of Ru(II) are compared with similar products templated with a conventional cationic surfactant, CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide). Templating with this ruthenium metallosurfactant leads to well-ordered mesoporous silica with catalytically active RuO2nanoparticles distributed uniformly within the silica pores.