Patent ID: 6207098
Filing Date: 2001-03-27
Classification: B01J,C01B,C03B,C03C,C04B,G01N

Abstract:
A process for producing inorganic porous materials, mainly composed of glass or glass-ceramic components, having interconnected continuous macropores with a median diameter larger than 0.1 .mu.m, and having mesopores in the walls of said macropores, said mesopores having a median diameter between 2 and 100 nm, via a sol-gel transition route comprising:(a) dissolving a water-soluble polymer or some other pore forming agent and a precursor for a matrix dissolving agent in a medium that promotes the hydrolysis of metalorganic compounds;(b) mixing a metalorganic compound which contains hydrolyzable ligands in the medium to promote a hydrolysis reaction thereof;(c) solidifying the mixture through the sol-gel transition, whereby a gel is prepared which has three-dimensional interconnected phase domains, one rich in solvent and the other rich in an inorganic component in which surface pores are contained;(d) setting the matrix dissolving agent free from its precursor, whereby the matrix dissolving agent modifies the structure of said inorganic component;(e) removing the phase rich in solvent by evaporation drying and/or heat-treatment; and(f) calcining the gel to form the porous material.