Mesoporous Silica from Lyotropic Liquid Crystal Polymer Templates

Abstract

Amphiphilic block copolymer templates in sol-gel processes yield bicontinuous silicates with distorted hexagonal symmetry (see, for example, the transmission electron migrograph depicted on the right). The long Bragg distance of 8-13 nm combined with the high mechanical and thermal stability suggests some promising prospects for chemistry and materials science.