Confined assembly towards one-dimensional mesoporous nanostructures
Description
Cooperative assembly of inorganic species/surfactant can lead to highly ordered composite mesostrucrures and mesoporous silica of various mesophases (e.g. cubic, hexagonal, lamellar structure). Oriented composite mesostructure and mesoporous silica have received much attention due to its favorable orientations in broad applications. Synthesis of the oriented composite mesostructures and mesoporous silica has been accomplished with assistance of either external field (e.g. magnetic field, mechanical field) or by controlling nature of interface between composite mesostructure and substrate. It is still a challenge to control number and length of oriented hexagonal tubules or mesopores within hexagonal composite mesostructure or mesoporous silica. This dissertation demonstrates capillary growth of composite mesostructure within nanoscale channels to obtain oriented composite mesostructure and corresponding mesoporous nanowires with various composition and well-controlled nanowire diameter. The dissertation also discusses confined effect on the self-assembly process and generalizes a confined assembly approach to synthesize nanowires of a variety of mesoporous mateials. The highly ordered oriented mesoporous materials in nanoscale pore channels are desirable for many of possibility to be realized in applications. The dissertation also has demonstrated novel oriented mesostructured nanowires via electrodeposition using oriented mesoporous silica nanowires as template