Rational design of a novel Silica-Based material with abundant open micropores for efficient VOC removal

• A novel silica-based material with abundant open micropores was prepared. • A room-temperature synthesis route was proposed. • Interaction between TBAOH and silica precursors determined the pore accessibility. • The optimized MIS TBA -0.36 exhibited a high m-xylene adsorption capacity (114 mg/g). • Efficient removal of VOCs with different molecule sizes was achieved on MIS TBA -0.36. Porous materials with high adsorption capacity for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been a hot topic in the zeolite field, and preparing a silica-based material suitable for the removal of VOCs with different molecular sizes is still challenging. Here, a novel microporous silica-based material (MIS) having abundant micropores (∼0.278 cm 3 /g) and wide range of pore sizes (0.5–2.0 nm) was successfully obtained via a room-temperature synthesis route by using tetrabutylammonium hydroxide (TBAOH). The pore structure and accessibility could be finely modulated by tuning the interaction between TBAOH and silica precursors based on intelligent gravimetric analyzer and hyperpolarized 129 Xe NMR spectra results. The optimized MIS with open micropores exhibited a much higher m-xylene adsorption capacity (114 mg/g) than conventional adsorbents and no decrease of adsorption capacity in the fourth adsorption-desorption test. Similarly, good adsorption performance was also observed for acetone, isopropanol, toluene, styrene, and mesitylene, demonstrating its wide applicability. In adsorption-desorption tests for the whole VOCs, the maximum desorption temperature of MIS was below 115 °C. Therefore, the proposed MIS is a promising efficient adsorbent for VOC removal.