Abstract

Nanoporous silica has been successfully synthesized using hide powder as a template. We investigated the optimum conditions for the extraction of hide powder with acidic solutions and the effect of the removal method of hide powder from hide powder/silica composite on the porous properties of nanoporous silica. It was found from thermogravimetric (TG) measurements that hide powder could be removed from hide powder/silica composite by extraction with 10vol% HCl aqueous solution at 333K for 24 hours. It was also found from N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm measurements that nanoporous silica synthesized by acid extraction possessed a large specific surface area over 1000m2 g-1. Moreover, micropore volume and micropore size for nanoporous silica synthesized by acid extraction was larger than those for nanoporous silica synthesized by calcination at high temperature. We demonstrated that the acid extraction with 10vol% HCl aqueous solution was reasonable for the removal of hide powder from hide powder/silica composite.