A series of ordered mesoporous cobalt silicate molecular sieves with variable Si/Co molar ratios were hydrothermally synthesized. The materials were characterized by powder X‐ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption, temperature programmed reduction (TPR), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TPR and TEM results indicate that Co introduced by this method is incorporated into the framework of the ordered mesoporous materials rather than residing as Co3O4 particles in the pore system. XRD and N2 adsorption experiments reveal that the interplanar Bragg spacing, surface area, and pore width of the materials are tunable as a function of the bulk Si/Co molar ratio. The surface areas of the materials range from ∼1300 m2/g (unmodified siliceous mesoporous ordered material) to ∼500 m2/g (maximum incorporation of Co before structural breakdown), with the Barrett‐Joyner‐Halenda (BJH) model pore widths varying from 2 to 3 nm, respectively. Vanadium was also introduced by the same method to demonstrate the applicability of the method.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to John Walmsley and Randi Holmestad for their help with the TEM images. We also thank the Research Council of Norway (NFR) for financial support.