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Department of Chemistry, Southampton University, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
* Departamento de Engenharia de Materiais, IST, Universidade Téchnica de Lisboa,
Av. Rovisco Pais, 1000 Lisboa, Portugal
E-mail: clara.goncalves@ist.utl.pt
| The lyotropic liquid crystalline phases of surfactants have been used as templates for the synthesis of mesoporous nanostructured materials. To achieve direct templating by liquid crystalline phases, surfactant concentrations in excess of 30 wt. % in water are used. Here we report on the processing of thin films of nanostructured mesoporous silicas by dip coating from mixtures that contain high surfactant concentrations. By altering the surfactant to water ratio we were able to obtain films that had micellar cubic (I1), normal topology hexagonal (HI), or lamellar (Lα) organization. Calcination of these films afforded adherent films that in most cases retained the long-ranged architecture of the liquid crystalline phase. |
full paper (pdf, 672 Kb)