title: Hierarchically imprinted porous films for rapid and selective detection of explosives.
abstract: On the basis of the combination of colloidal and mesophase templating, as well as molecular imprinting, a general and effective approach for the preparation of hierarchically structured trimodal porous silica films was developed. With this new methodology, controlled formation of well-defined pore structures not only on macro- and mesoscale but also on microscale can be achieved, affording a new class of hierarchical porous materials with molecular recognition capability. As a demonstration, TNT was chosen as template molecule and hierarchically imprinted porous films were successfully fabricated, which show excellent sensing properties in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, stability, and regeneracy. The pore system reported here combines the multiple benefits arising from all length scales of pore size and simultaneously possesses a series of distinct properties such as high pore volume, large surface area, molecular selectivity, and rapid mass transport. Therefore, our described strategy and the resulting pore systems should hold great promise for various applications not only in chemical sensors, but also in catalysis, separation, adsorption, or electrode materials.
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Organic Optoelectronic and Molecular Engineering, Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Shengyang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.forename: Cheng-an
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.forename: Weina
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Changxu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Ma
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yuquan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Guangtao
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li