title: Assembling wormlike micelles in tubular nanopores by tuning surfactant-wall interactions.
abstract: Threadlike molecular assemblies are excluded from narrow pores unless attractive interactions with the confining pore walls compensate for the loss of configurational entropy. Here we show that wormlike surfactant micelles can be assembled in the 8 nm tubular nanopores of SBA-15 silica by adjusting the surfactant-pore-wall interactions. The modulation of the interactions was achieved by coadsorption of a surface modifier that also provides control over the partitioning of wormlike aggregates between the bulk solution and the pore space. We anticipate that the concept of tuning the interactions with the pore wall will be applicable to a wide variety of self-assembling molecules and pores.
authors.affiliation: Stranski Laboratorium, Institut für Chemie, Technische Universität Berlin, Strasse des 17. Juni 124, D-10623 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Bhuvnesh
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bharti
authors.forename: Mengjun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meissner
authors.forename: Viviana
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cristiglio
authors.forename: Gerhard H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Findenegg
mesh_terms: D008823:Micelles; D058608:Nanopores; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D008823:Micelles; C509969:SBA-15; D013501:Surface-Active Agents; D012822:Silicon Dioxide