Preparation Of Mesoporous Silica Nanoflakes With Perpendicular Pore Channels

Mesoporous silica materials attracted many researchers, which are potentially applied in the fields of catalysis and controlled release. In particular, the peculiar properties of the mesoporous silica nanoflakes with perpendicular pore channels have attracted much attention. Recent advances in applying mesoporous silica films as templates for embedded photoactive molecules, metallic nanowires, and conducting polymers have been widely studied. Moreover, mesoporous silica films can be used as separation membranes and photonics.Herein, mesoporous silica materials were prepared through sol-gel methods. Firstly, a series of chiral low-molecular-weight amphiphiles derived from amino acids were synthesized, the gelation behaviours were studied in deionized water and organic solvents. The circular dichroism spectra indicated that the chiral low-molecular-weight amphiphiles stacked in chiral within the self-assemblies. Secondly,the mesoporous silica nanoflakes with perpendicular pore channels and the other morphologies with interesting pore architectures were prepared using the self-assemblies of the chiral low-molecular-weight amphiphiles as the templates and TEOS or bissilsesquioxanes as the precursors. The sol-gel reactions were carried out under basic conditions. Finally, the morphologies and the pore architectures of the mesoporous silica materials were characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD and N2 adsorption-desorption.