ABSTRACT
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Preparation and Solid Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Mesoporous Silica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Fractal Silica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Modified Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Computer Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Surface Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Adsorption from Gas Phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Adsorption on Silica and Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Adsorption on Porous Silica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
Computer Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Adsorption from Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Chromatographic Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Adsorption Kinetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Miscellaneous Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Since the publication in 1979 of Iler’s book The Chemistry
of Silica [1] the interest on silica has not decreased. Scien-
tists working either on basic or applied research continue
to publish papers concerning the chemistry and properties
of silica. During the 1990s a new family of solid silica
derivates (mesoporous silica) has been synthetized
expanding both technological applications and basic
research opportunities of silica-based materials. Appli-
cations in the areas of separation, catalysis, nanotechno-
logy, molecular assembly, molecular recognition, and so
on [2-7] are studied by a large number of scientists.
