A Waste‐Derived Biosurfactant for the Preparation of Templated Silica Powders

Abstract

A polymeric anionic biosurfactant isolated from urban bio-wastes was used as a template for fabricating silica powders of pore size ranging from 4 to 30 nm by the sol-gel reaction of tetraethylorthosilicate and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane at pH 5. The morphology of the synthesized silica powders was found to depend on the size and the conformation of the biosurfactant molecules or aggregates in solution. The use of waste-derived biosurfactants as templating agents reduces the fabrication costs and the environmental impact of mesoporous materials. At the same time, it encourages the upgrade of bio-wastes from a costly disposal matter to a source of chemicals and therefore, of revenue.

Paramagnetic Iron-Doped Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles with Improved Metal Sorption Properties. A Bioorganic Substrates-Mediated Synthesis

“…9 UBW-SBO are mixtures of substances with molecular weights in the range (1-3)×10 5 Da, formed by long aliphatic C chains substituted by aromatic rings and COOH, NCO, C=O, PhOH, O-alkyl, O-aryl, OCO, OMe, and alkyl amines functional groups.…”

Effect of Humic Substances and Bioorganic Substrates from Urban Wastes in Nanostructured Materials Applications and Synthesis

“…The comparison of the results obtained for TiO 2 and SiO 2 prepared in the presence of SBO [24] indicates that the biosurfactant plays a different role when used in the presence of TEOS (tetraethyl orthosilicate, SiO 2 precursor) and TIIP (Titanium tetraisopropoxide, TiO 2 precursor). In the first case SBO molecules act as real templating agents forming silica with increasing porosity upon increasing SBO amount in synthesis procedure.…”

“…In fact, SBO have also been reported [24] to be efficient in the flocculation of alumina, zirconia and barium titanate. Addition of 25-50 ppm SBO on 3 % alumina, zirconia and barium titanate suspensions leads to particles settling within 5 h, leaving a clear supernatant.…”

“…SBO have been found [24] to perform as template for fabricating silica powders with 4-40 nm pore size. Silica synthesized by sol-gel reaction in the presence of the SBO showed morphology depending on the SBO concentration.…”

Sol–Gel Synthesis of a Biotemplated Inorganic Photocatalyst: A Simple Experiment for Introducing Undergraduate Students to Materials Chemistry

“…1 Plant leaves and stems, 2,3 cotton fibers, 4 eggshell membranes, 5,6 sponges, 7 spider webs, 8 DNA fragments, 9 viruses, 10 composted organic refuse, 11 and many other biotemplates have been used as directing agents for the preparation of nanostructured inorganic particles, monoliths, and films.…”