High surface area phosphosilicate glasses were synthesized by a new sol-gel method and characterizedfor structural, textural, and acid properties by X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry/differential thermalanalysis, IR spectroscopy (Fourier transform and diffuse reflectance Fourier transform), solid state
31Pand
29Si NMR spectroscopy, N
2 adsorption, and NH
3 temperature programmed desorption. The glasseswere synthesized by a sol-gel route hydrolyzing the precursors in an almost solely aqueous environment.Microstructural changes occurring during the conversion of the gels into the corresponding glasses wereinvestigated. For all dried gels (383 K), the elimination of organic residues was complete at 673 K. Afterthis heat treatment, ca. 80% of the phosphorus was present as free phosphoric acid except for the samplewith the highest P content for which the percentage dropped to ca. 47%. Textural properties of samplestreated at 673 K were greatly influenced by the composition. Surface area decreased and pore dimensionincreased with increasing phosphorus content, indicating a gradual transformation of the siloxane matrixfrom microporous to mesoporous. Br
![](/images/entities/oslash.gif)
nsted acid sites of differing strength, mainly related to the presenceof phosphoric acids, were found. The surface concentration and strength of acid sites increased withphosphorus content.