Hard-sphere packing and icosahedral assembly in the formation of mesoporous materials.
We report the synthesis and characterization of a novel mesoporous material with a face-centered cubic (fcc) symmetry and intrinsic bimodal pores. Moreover, an icosahedral (ICO) mesostructure with both meso- and macroscale 5-fold symmetry is observed. We propose a hard-sphere packing (HSP) mechanism for the formation of mesoporous materials by assuming preformed robust surfactant/silicate composite micelles being hard spheres. In comparison to the conventional liquid crystal templating (LCT) or cooperative self-assembly (CSA) mechanism, our contribution provides an important advancement of knowledge in the study of mesostructured materials.
Tang
Jiawei
J
Department of Chemistry and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, PR China.
Zhou
Xufeng
X
Zhao
Dongyuan
D
Lu
Gao Qing
GQ
Zou
Jin
J
Yu
Chengzhong
C