COVER LETTER

Dear editor,

We are submitting to “Materials Research” the paper entitled “Importance of the order of

addition of the alumina precursor and its type into Al-SBA-15 mesoporous materials for use

as water adsorbents”. In this work, Al-SBA mesoporous materials were investigated for use

as water adsorbents. Different precursors for aluminum were investigated as well as three

different procedures for addition of the silica and alumina sources. Samples were

characterized by nitrogen adsorption to observe their textural characteristics and by

thermogravimetric desorption of water to address their performance. This work has shown

that functionalizing SBA-15 materials with aluminum is a promising strategy for producing

water adsorbents with improved performance and potential for many applications.

We are providing a colored version of some graphics presented in the manuscript. Thus

these figures are intended for color reproduction on the Web. In order to allow the black

and white printing of these figures, the curves were properly labeled.

All authors contributed to the design of the study, data collection and interpretation of

results. They have read and approved the final manuscript. We also attest that this work has

not been published previously and that it is not under consideration for publication

elsewhere.

Thank you and best regards,

Jéssica Notório, MSc.