It is for the first time demonstrated that the plugged hexagonal-templated silicas can be facilely and controllably prepared from cheap sodium silicate without using any additives. The formation of constricted/plugged mesostructures is attributed to the non-uniform/ill-templating behaviours between silicate oligomers and P123 molecules under the synthesis conditions employed.

A facile and versatile synthesis method, called the partitioned cooperative self-assembly process (PCSA process), is developed to prepare mesoporous SBA-15 silicas using P123 surfactant as template and cheap sodium silicate (SS) as silica precursor. It is demonstrated for the first time that by simply partitioning the cooperative self-assembly process, larger mesopore size (∼10 nm) can be achieved without using any additives or special synthetic conditions; high microporosities (>0.15 cm³ g⁻¹) unprecendentedly persist upon hydrothermal treatment at 120 °C for 20 h with comparable mesopore sizes, which are in big contrast with those prepared by conventional method. The PHTS-type SBA-15s can also be favorably prepared by the PCSA process. In addition, the sizes of flower-like SBA-15 particle can be facilely tuned by adjusting the addition combinations of SS and interval time between the 1st and 2nd additions in the PCSA process. Interestingly, based on TEOS, the PCSA process yielded bimodal mesostructured SBA-15 with different wall thicknesses but the same mesopore size. The versatile PCSA process, which has shown its potential in tailoring the textural and morphological properties of SBA-15s, could lead to even wider spectrum of SBA-15s with various mesostructures if coupled with other synthetic measures.

In the paper, glass ceramics used as architectural materials were prepared based on lead fuming furnace-slag (LFFS) by a synergistic sinter-crystallization method. The effects of Al₂O₃ addition on the crystallization phase, crystallization kinetics, and mechanical performance of glass ceramics were investigated. The results showed that the phases of the glass ceramics prepared were composed of gehlenite and wollastonite, and crystallization kinetics analysis showed that bulk crystallization dominated the overall crystallization process in the Al₂O₃ content range from 2% to 8%. The glass transition temperature and the crystallization peak temperature of the glass ceramics generally increased with the increase in the Al₂O₃ content. Additionally, the crystalline morphology gradually developed from sheet-like to spherical, while the number of pores increased and the bulk density gradually decreased. When the Al₂O₃ content was 2%, the bending strength of glass ceramics reached its maximum, 75.1 MPa, corresponding to a bulk density of 2.24 g·cm⁻³. Owing to the high strength and relatively low bulk density, the sintered glass ceramics appear promising for potential applications in lightweight construction tiles.