Experimental study of Cu(en)(H2O)2SO4 embedded into mesoporous silica matrix SBA-15 with the hexagonal arrangement of pores

In this work, we present an experimental study to find the optimal way of encapsulation of the magnetic quasi-two-dimensional system Cu( en)(H ₂O) ₂SO ₄ ( en = ethylenediamine = C ₂H ₈N ₂) in mesoporous silica SBA-15 with hexagonal pore morphology with a pore size of 5 nm. Our main goal is to achieve the most significant possible degree of pore filling and to study the effect of encapsulation of complex Cu( en)(H ₂O) ₂SO ₄ in SBA-15 silica on the magnetic properties of the studied complex by means of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and magnetization measurements. It was found that the adsorption equilibrium during the adsorption of the Cu( en)(H ₂O) ₂SO ₄ complex from the solution to SBA-15 was reached after only 24 h, and the samples prepared by adsorption for a longer time (72 h, 14 days) did not show an increased amount of the loaded complex. The degree of pore filling represents around 60 % of the total volume of internal pores. The analysis of temperature dependence of susceptibility, the field dependence of magnetization, and EPR spectra showed that due to the encapsulation of Cu( en)(H ₂O) ₂SO ₄ complex in mesoporous silica, the magnetic correlations between Cu(II) ions are significantly weakened, yielding paramagnetic behavior in the studied system.