Preparation of Ultrastable Mesoporous Silica Using a Phenanthroline-Appended Cholesterol Organogelator as a Template

Abstract

New phenanthroline-appended cholesterol organic gelator 1 was synthesized. It was shown from the gelation test that it acts as a versatile gelator of organic fluids such as DMSO, DMF, 1-propanol, acetic acid, etc. The sol−gel polymerization of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) was carried out using the 1 + acetic acid gel. The silica obtained from the 1 + acetic acid gel resulted in a tubular structure with ca. 4.5 nm inner diameter, which showed the 7.08 value for Q4/Q3. These results indicate that the ultrastable mesoporous-sized silica structure can be created by transcription of the organogel superstructure as a template.