Open AccessIncreasing the Diameter of Vertically Aligned, Hexagonally Ordered Pores in Mesoporous Silica Thin Films
Author(s) -
Nabil A. N. Mohamed,
Yisong Han,
Andrew L. Hector,
Anthony R. Houghton,
Elwin HunterSellars,
Gillian Reid,
Daryl R. Williams,
Wenjian Zhang
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
langmuir
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.042
H-Index - 333
eISSN - 1520-5827
pISSN - 0743-7463
DOI - 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c02854
Subject(s) - mesoporous material , materials science , alkyl , pulmonary surfactant , chemical engineering , substrate (aquarium) , cationic polymerization , mesoporous silica , nanopore , hexagonal crystal system , perpendicular , nanotechnology , thin film , crystallography , polymer chemistry , chemistry , organic chemistry , oceanography , geometry , mathematics , engineering , geology , catalysis
The variation in pore size in mesoporous films produced by electrochemically assisted self-assembly (EASA) with the surfactant chain length is described. EASA produces a hexagonal array of pores perpendicular to the substrate surface by using an applied potential to organize cationic surfactants and the resultant current to drive condensation in a silica sol. Here, we show that a range of pore sizes between 2 and 5 nm in diameter is available with surfactants of the form [Me 3 NC n H 2 n +1 ]Br, with alkyl chain lengths between C 14 and C 24 . The film quality, pore order, pore size, and pore accessibility are probed with a range of techniques.
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