ABSTRACT
The study of silica materials has been a field of enormous interest for a long time, because this is an inert and very stable material [1]. Following the discovery of silica sols and gels in the 1920s and the invention of pyrogenic silica in the 1940s, finely dispersed and porous silica became a subject of intensive research [1-9]. Porous silica is one of the various forms of amorphous silica. It can be prepared by acidification of basic aqueous silicate solutions, and when reaction conditions are properly adjusted, porous silica gels are obtained [1]. If water is evaporated from the pores of silica hydrogels prepared in this fashion, porous xerogels are obtained [6,9]. Using this methodology, high-surface-area catalysts and catalyst supports, chromatographic stationary phases, and adsorbents are commercially prepared [6,9].
