Synthesis of disordered mesoporous silica loaded with ultrasmall-sized CuO nanoparticles based on an alkali-free strategy and its excellent catalytic performance in the reduction of organic dye.

In this paper, disordered mesoporous silica loaded with ultrasmall-sized and highly dispersed CuO nanoparticles was obtained by an alkali-free strategy. Pre-prepared copper bromoacetate (CuBA) and (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES) were selected as reactants, which can be covalently connected with each other for the formation of functional hybrid precursors. Simultaneously, the protonated amino group with the ability to promote the hydrolysis of silane was generated, avoiding any additional catalyst. The covalent introduction of copper salt by chemical bonding promised the molecular-level dispersion of copper ions, favouring the in situ generation of ultrasmall-sized and highly dispersed CuO nanoparticles in the silica matrix. The average diameter of this obtained composited silica material is around 700 nm, and CuO nanoparticles with an average diameter of ∼3 nm were uniformly dispersed in the silica matrix. Typically, disordered mesopores were obtained under the thermolysis of organic chains in the hybrid silica matrix; the BET surface area is 77 m2 g-1 and the pore diameter is about 2.5 nm. The catalytic property was investigated and the results show that this obtained CuO@mSiO2 material has good catalytic performance in the reduction of organic dye with NaBH4 as the reducing agent.