Preparation of Mesoporous Silica and Carbon Materials with Multilength‐Scale Pores and Hydrogen Sorption Application

A facile method was developed for the preparation of bimodal mesoporous siliceous materials with nanostructured pores in which a cationic organic template, n ‐hexadecyltrimethylammonium hydroxide, was employed as a base catalyst as well as a mesopore structure‐directing agent during the slow condensation of tetraethoxysilane. It was possible to alter the pore orientations of smaller pores by adding neutral auxiliary templates such as Brij76 and P123. A series of biomodal mesoporous carbons was also obtained from the bimodal mesoporous silica materials through a nanocasting process. The resulting bimodal mesoporous carbons exhibited decent hydrogen uptake values at 77 K. The maximum hydrogen uptake was 1.33 wt.‐% for the sample having the narrowest pores, while keeping a relatively large pore volume. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2009)