Controllable Synthesis of Hollow Mesoporous Organosilica Nanoparticles with Pyridine-2,6-Bis-Imidazolium Frameworks for CO2 Conversion

A series of hard-template-derived hollow mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles (HMONs) with pyridine-2,6-bis-imidazolium frameworks have been described for the first time. As a part of the investigation, to evaluate the effects of the hard template nature, the Si/CTAB and organosilica/TEOS molar ratios, and the stepwise addition of precursors, four reaction conditions denoted as methods A-D were designed. In the presence of polystyrene latex as a hard template, the HMONs that we wished to synthesize were not yielded with a Si/CTAB molar ratio of 3 (method A), but we could synthesize the desired HMONs with a Si/CTAB molar ratio of 9 and an organosilica : TEOS ratio of 1 : 99 (method B). The ratio of organosilica to TEOS could be improved up to 2.5 : 97.5 if the precursor additions are made in a stepwise manner rather than by simultaneous additions (method C). Using sSiO