The chemical interaction and confinement effect of molecules in the sol-gel AlPO4 mesoporous glasses

Owing to the separation in the mesoscale and confinement effect of mesostructured pores to the molecule, mesoporous materials have been widely applied as matrices of host-guest organic-inorganic materials, adsorbents or catalysts. To date, the most developed mesoporous materials concentrated on silica and carbon-based system, as the neutral SiO4 and C skeletons lack the acidic sites which is still the main hurdle for the widespread application of mesoporous materials. We developed a transparent and colourless stoichiometric AlPO4 monolith glass possessing a highly mesoporous structure with chemical activities as a results of alternating AlO4- and PO4- tetrahedra framework. The detailed understanding of the molecules confinement mechanism in M-AP will also lead to better design of phosphate mesoporous materials as luminescent hosts and catalysts.