Ordered SBA-15 nanorod arrays inside a porous alumina membrane.
The growth of ordered nanorods of mesoporous SBA-15 inside a porous alumina membrane has been achieved for the first time by a simple sol-gel method. The obtained SBA-15 nanorods themselves have ordered hexagonal mesochannels with a size of about 6 nm and have been arranged to form hexagonal arrays by the limitation of pores of the alumina membrane. The synthesized alumina membrane with mesoporous SBA-15 inside combines the advantages of porous alumina membranes and mesoporous SBA-15 and provides fine and vertical mesochannels, which may serve as a new and efficient mold and lead to extensive applications in nanodevice fabrication, biomacromolecule separations, etc.
Lu
Qingyi
Q
Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
Gao
Feng
F
Komarneni
Sridhar
S
Mallouk
Thomas E
TE