Hydrothermal synthesis of advanced composite materials for various environmental applications

Currently, the use of nanotechnology is being explored to create materials with specific properties that perform explicit functions. Thus, the investigation of different synthesis routes of various types of silica-based materials has been pursued. Mesoporous silica can be widely used in the field of environmental protection due to its specific and impressive properties that include uniform hexagonal pores and high specific surface areas, which render it a good host material. Moreover, the mesoporous silica regeneration property through simple technologies makes it a suitable option for different applications. Therefore, in this research were used two types of mesoporous silica obtained by hydrothermal method, which were functionalized with TiO2 and ZnO for subsequent environmental applications. In order to characterize the developed materials, advanced characterization techniques have been used: X-ray fluorescence (XRF) for chemical composition determination, X-ray diffraction (XRD) for mineralogical compounds and electronic scanning microscopy (SEM) to assess the morphology.