However, they have smaller surface areas (624 and 560 vs. 1,008 m2/g) and pore volumes (0.43 and 0.4 vs. 0.64 m3/g). Overall, high nitric acid concentrations provide spheres with AZD0156 molecular weight uniform pore size and disordered structure, whereas growth at low concentrations increases the rate of condensation and surface roughness and promotes pore order. Quiescent preparations using sulfuric acid were slightly different. The rate of silica production was slower for H2SO4 than

HCl or HNO3 due to weak binding of the SO4 −2 counterion to CTA+ surfactant according to the Hofmeister series [45]. This reduces the condensation rate and delays precipitation of products to a period exceeding 2 weeks. Preparations conducted at 1 SA and 2 SA molar ratios gave essentially similar results. The output mix of

morphologies in Figure 5 has disordered hexagonal pores. According to the XRD pattern in Figure 7a, they show only a broad (100) peak. Sorption isotherms are also of type IV but with a slightly wider capillary condensation step. The average pore size is about 2.5 nm, which is very close to the pore size of MSF, but the wall thickness is thinner (approximately 0.8 vs. 2.0 nm for HCl growth and 2.15 nm for HNO3 growth), emphasizing Baf-A1 clinical trial our point of slow condensation in the presence of H2SO4 acid which becomes even slower at higher molar ratios (3.34 SA), where no silica was observed in the growth beaker. In line with the above results, quiescent interfacial growth is a slow process (>2 days) and can be influenced by the counterion type and content. At equivalent acid contents, the

Progesterone growth time increased in the order of NO3 − < Cl− < SO4 −2. This aligns with the known Hofmeister series of anions’ binding strengths to cationic surfactants which decrease in the order of NO3 − > Cl− > SO4 −2[45, 46]. This means that the highly binding NO3 − counterions can associate easily to surfactant micelles (S+) and shield the positive VX-680 order charge forming S+X− associates with a higher apparent negative charge in the water phase. Accordingly, the attraction rate to the positive silica species (I+), which have already diffused into the water phase and hydrolyzed with water, will increase and lead to faster silica condensation and shorter induction times. With a less binding counterion, like Cl−, the S+X− species become less negative which reduces the attraction to (I+) and increases the induction time. In the case of the weakly binding SO4 −2 counterion, only slight proportions of this counterion can be associated, thus keeping a strong repulsion between the similarly charged surfactant and silica species. This hinders the condensation process and slows the growth as seen in sample 3.34 SA. The condensation of silica continues on the silica-surfactant seeds in the water phase, and further steps of aggregation and restructuring can simultaneously take place which in summary control the morphology and pore structure of the final product.