Comparative Study of Physicochemical Properties of MCM-41 Silica Nanoparticles Obtained from Recycled Glass and TEOS

There are wide applications that can be given to MCM-41 type silica nanoparticles. On the other hand, glass waste is produced in large quantities and is difficult to remove. Therefore, in this research work, the physicochemical properties of silica nanoparticles with mesoporous hexagonal structure type MCM-41 synthesized by alkaline sol-gel with sodium silicate (SS) obtained from recycled glass are compared against them synthesized at the same conditions but with commercial tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS). To obtain sodium silicate, an alkaline fusion process was performed and confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The products of the sol-gel synthesis were analyzed by low-angle X-ray diffraction (SAXRD), adsorption-desorption of N 2 , SEM and FTIR. The results show that, through the alkaline fusion process, the glass waste can be converted to sodium silicate and therefore can be used for the synthesis of MCM-41 type nanoparticles with physicochemical characteristics very similar to that obtained with commercial TEOS, as it was found that using SS as precursor spherical nanoparticles with a certain agglomeration can be obtained and that these particles have the hexagonal pore structure as the TEOS obtained particles, with a low broadening of the interplanar spaces and cell parameter; also, was observed that the surface properties are almost the same for samples obtained with both precursors. Therefore, the MCM-41 nanoparticles synthesized with glass waste could be used in any application in which this type of structure could be useful.