(183ao) In-Situ Synthesis and Characterization of Mesoporous SBA-15 inside Enclosed Polymer Microchannels

Santa Barbara Amorphous 15 (SBA-15) is a mesoporous material typically formed by a chain of reactions involving micelle formation, elongation, alignment, and calcination. SBA-15 has a large amount of surface area, making it advantageous in numerous applications such as gas adsorption, catalysis, drug delivery, and diagnostics. In this study, polymeric microchannels (50μm x 2mm x 5cm) were created using techniques such as xurography and soft lithography. SBA-15 was synthesized inside enclosed microchannels for future studies involving flow through nanoporous materials.

Various synthesis parameters, such as drying time and temperature, required alteration from conventional preparation methods to accommodate the materials used for microchannel creation and to account for the difficulty of drying in an enclosed environment. Techniques such as STEM imaging were used to confirm the successful synthesis of SBA-15 inside the microchannels and also to determine resulting pore size. Factors affecting both the size of the pores and the direction of micelle alignment were varied and studied in order to control the dimensions and directions of the final material.