Lithographically Formed Fine Wavy Surface Morphology for Universal Alignment Control of Mesochannels in Mesostructured Silica Films

Mesoporous ordered films via self-assembly: trends and perspectives

The synthesis of ordered mesoporous films via self-assembly represents one of the main accomplishments in nanoscience. In fact, controlling the complex chemical-physical phenomena that govern the process triggered by the solvent's fast evaporation during film deposition has represented a challenging task. Several years after the first articles on the subject, the research in the field entered a new stage. New advanced applications based on the peculiar properties of mesoporous films are envisaged while basic research is still going on, especially to clarify the mechanism behind self-organization in a spatially defined environment and the physics and chemistry in mesoscale porosity. This review has been dedicated to analysing the main trends in the fields and the perspective for future developments.

Increasing the Diameter of Vertically Aligned, Hexagonally Ordered Pores in Mesoporous Silica Thin Films

The variation in pore size in mesoporous films produced by electrochemically assisted self-assembly (EASA) with the surfactant chain length is described. EASA produces a hexagonal array of pores perpendicular to the substrate surface by using an applied potential to organize cationic surfactants and the resultant current to drive condensation in a silica sol. Here, we show that a range of pore sizes between 2 and 5 nm in diameter is available with surfactants of the form [Me₃NC_nH_2n+1]Br, with alkyl chain lengths between C₁₄ and C₂₄. The film quality, pore order, pore size, and pore accessibility are probed with a range of techniques.