Periodic mesoporous organosilicas as porous matrix for heterogeneous lyophobic systems

Periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMO) have been studied for the first time as a porous matrix for heterogeneous lyophobic systems (HLS) for absorption and storage of mechanical energy by high pressure intrusion extrusion of electrolyte solutions. It has been shown that the intrusion of LiCl aqueous solutions in ethane bridged PMO material is irreversible that corresponds to a bumper behavior. The intrusion pressure increases strongly with the salt concentration - from 13 MPa for 5 M LiCl aqueous solution to 37 MPa for 20 M one. Such a pressure rise of 2.8 times is the highest observed for HIS based on mesoporous materials. Due to high intruded volume (0.63-0.72 mL/g) specific absorbed energy achieves 27 J/g, which is close to the best values ever obtained for HLS based on zeosils and mesoporous silica. The characterization shows that after the intrusion extrusion experiments the ordered pore arrangement largely stays intact, but a slight increase of the mesopore volume is observed.