The Role of Defects in the Formation of Mesoporous Silica Fibers, Films, and Curved Shapes

Abstract

The main goal of this research news article is to describe how different kinds of topological defects that exist in a silicate liquid crystal seed can initiate and direct the growth of particular forms of mesoporous silica. This avenue of investigation emerged from the results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and polarized optical microscopy (POM) studies of hexagonal mesoporous silica fibers, films, and curved shapes, which delineated the essential relations between synthesis conditions, morphology, bulk and surface mesostructure, and optical birefringence textures.[1–3] While SEMs of faceted mesoporous silica first appeared in 1992,[4] the recognition, understanding, and significance of morphogenesis of mesoporous silica with curved shapes emerged in a series of papers from our laboratory.