Merck Patent Gmbh

Merck Patent Gesellschaft

Naohiro Soga

Kazuki Nakanishi

Tokiyo Minakuchi

Hiroyoshi Minakuchi

Inorganic porous materials contained in a confined space with at least one dimension of less than 1 mm, which are in liquid tight contact with the walls of said confined space. Preferred as the confined space are capillaries. Articles contained such materials and methods for making them in the confined space are described.

Process for producing inorganic porous material in a capillary

A capillary column comprising a capillary of which the inner diameter is less than 1000 &mgr;m and a continuous porous silica gel which uniformly fills the capillary, said silica gel containing both continuous through pores having diameters ranging from 0.5-5 &mgr;m and mesopores having diameters ranging from 2-50 nm.

Capillary column including porous silica gel having continuous throughpores and mesopores

The present invention relates to a process for producing inorganic porous materials, mainly composed of glass or glass-ceramic components. The glass or glass-ceramic components can have interconnected continuous macropores with a median diameter larger than 0.1 &mgr;m, and mesopores in the walls of said macropores, said mesopores having a median diameter between 2 and 100 nm. The process can include dissolving a water-soluble polymer or some other pore forming agent and a precursor for a matrix dissolving agent in a medium for mixing with a metalorganic compound.

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Kobe, Japan

Naohiro Soga