Enhanced surfactant template recycling for continuous production of mesoporous silica materials

Mobil Crystalline Material 41 (MCM-41) has been synthesized by silica condensation on a template micelles formed at critical micelle concentration (CMC) dependent on solvent used. The template in the filtrate remained after synthesis gel filtration and the extracted template were utilized for repeated synthesis cycles until no MCM-41 material was formed. The template was burn off completely under calcination and treated with solvent extraction using the filtrate composed mainly of ethanol. The template recycling study in continuous MCM-41 synthesis can be applied in MCM-41 industry for synthesizing MCM-41 material utilizing recycled template to achieve cheaper process with reduced filtrate disposal.