Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2011
Ethylene glycol modified precursors, such as tetrakis(2-hydroxyethyl)orthosilicate (EGMS) or bis(2-hydroxyethyl)titanate (EGMT), have distinct advantages in the synthesis of mesoporous materials by sol-gel processing compared to the commercially available tetraalkoxide precursors. The glycols released upon hydrolysis have proven to be compatible with lyotropic surfactant mesophases and in addition, these precursors allow for processing in purely aqueous conditions. Besides the standard characterization of the resulting titania and silica-based materials by XRD, electron microscopy, and nitrogen sorption, the potential of the titania-based materials for catalytic applications was tested using Au/TiO2 catalysts in low temperature CO oxidation reactions.