Patent ID: 7901652

Claim:
A method of producing porous silica-based particles, comprising the steps of: (a) preparing two-phase liquid consisting of an organic phase containing an organic silicon compound expressed by the following general formula (I) and a water phase, then adding an organic solvent, an alkali, and a surfactant into the water phase to form a mixed aqueous solution while agitating at least the water phase so that the organic phase and the water phase are not completely mixed with each other, and further agitating to hydrolyze and/or partially hydrolyze the organic silicon compound in mixed aqueous solution to obtain silica-based particle precursors; R 1 n Si(OR 2 ) 4-n (I) (wherein R 1 is a monovalent group selected from an alkyl group having a number of carbon atoms from 1 to 10, an aryl group having a number of carbon atoms from 6 to 10, and an unsaturated aliphatic group having a number of carbon atoms from 2 to 10, which are allowed to contain substituent groups therein, and R 2 is a monovalent group selected from a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having a number of carbon atoms from 1 to 5, and an acyl group having a number of carbon atoms from 2 to 5, and then n is an integer from 1 to 3.) (b) adding sodium aluminate into the mixed aqueous solution containing the silica-based particle precursors thereby producing porous silica-based particles having pores, cavities or voids inside the particles; and (c) washing and drying the porous silica-based particles.