Ajinomoto Co., Ltd.

Japan Science and Technology Agency

Shunai Che

Kazutami Sakamoto

Takashi Tatsumi

Toshiyuki Yokoi

Hideaki Yoshitake

A chiral inorganic mesoporous material characterized by having a chiral twisted structure and being mesoporous; a process for producing the material; and a method of using the material. The process for inorganic mesoporous material production is a method in which one or more polymerizable inorganic monomers selected from the group consisting of polymerizable inorganic monomers and polymerizable inorganic monomers having a functional group capable of having a charge are polymerized in the presence of a solvent using as a template a self-assembly of a chiral surfactant such as an N-(higher alkanoyl)amino acid salt. Examples of the use of the inorganic mesoporous material include the separation of racemates and reaction fields for asymmetric syntheses.

Inorganic mesoporous material having chiral twisted structure and process for producing the same

(A) An anionic surfactant, (B) a silicate monomer and (C) a basic silane are mixed in water or a mixed solvent of a water-miscible organic solvent and water to obtain a mesoporous silica complex having mesopores with a uniform size, the anionic surfactant Component (A) is removed by washing the resultant mesoporous silica complex with an acidic aqueous solution, a water-miscible organic solvent or an aqueous solution thereof to obtain a mesoporous silica outer shell utilizing the structure of the mesoporous silica complex as a template, and the mesoporous silica complex or the mesoporous silica outer shell is calcined to obtain a mesoporous silica. The mesoporous silica can be synthesized in this manner utilizing the anionic surfactant micelle with a remarkably low affinity to the silicate monomer.

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Shanghai, China

Shunai Che