Mesoporous material

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A mesoporous material is a material containing pores with diameters between 2 and 50 nm.

Porous materials are classified into several kinds by their size. According to IUPAC notation (see J. Rouquerol et al., Pure & Appl. Chem, 66 (1994) 1739-1758), microporous materials have pore diameters of less than 2 nm and macroporous materials have pore diameters of greater than 50 nm; the mesoporous category thus lies in the middle.

Typical mesoporous materials include some kinds of silica and alumina that have similarly-sized fine mesopores. Mesoporous oxides of niobium, tantalum, titanium, zirconium, cerium and tin have also been reported. A material that contains mesopores in part but is not regular, like silica gel, is not considered a mesoporous material.

The first mesoporous material was synthesized in 1992 by a research group of the Mobil Oil Company (see Kresge et al., Nature 359 (1992) 710). Since then, research in this field has steadily grown. Notable examples of prospective applications are catalysis, sorption, gas sensing, optics, and photovoltaics.