Synthesis of manganese incorporated hierarchical mesoporous silica nanosphere with fibrous morphology by facile one-pot approach for efficient catalytic ozonation.

Manganese incorporated fibrous silica nanosphere (MnOx-0.013/KCC-1) was synthesized by one step hydrothermal method for the first time and its catalytic activity for ozonation of oxalic acid was studied. For comparison, manganese loaded MCM-41 (MnOx-0.013/MCM-41) was prepared by impregnation method. Various characterizations showed that the morphological, structural and textural properties of MnOx-0.013/KCC-1 were well preserved. Ozonation and catalytic ozonation by MnOx-0.013/KCC-1 and MnOx-0.013/MCM-41 led to 4, 85 and 60% reduction in TOC respectively. Furthermore, 0.05 and 1.2mgL(-1) leaching of Mn was detected from MnOx-0.013/KCC-1 and MnOx-0.013/MCM-41, which are approximately 2.0 and 42.0% of the total Mn present in MnOx-0.013/KCC-1 and MnOx-0.013/MCM-41 respectively. The high catalytic activity was attributed to the generation of hydroxyl radical. Surface hydroxyl groups investigated by using phosphates and ATR-FTIR were believed to be the active sites. Our proposed method of synthesis can be generalized for the synthesis of other metal oxides incorporated fibrous silica for environmental catalysis and other catalytic reactions.