Large-pore ordered mesoporous materials templated from non-Pluronic amphiphilic block copolymers

Abstract

The self-assembly of small surfactants and Pluronic® amphiphilic copolymers has enabled the synthesis of a range of ordered mesoporous materials with high surface area, diverse compositions, variable pore structures and tunable pore sizes. It has recently been realized that non-Pluronic block copolymers can be used as robust templates for the synthesis of novel and high-performance mesoporous materials with crystalline frameworks, ultra-large pores, and abundant pore symmetries, which are not accessible using the Pluronic counterparts. In this review, we introduce the principle of self-assembly of block copolymers and their phase separations, and summarize recently developed synthetic methods and strategies for ordered mesoporous silicas, metal oxides, carbons and metals which have shown superior performances for applications in various fields, including solar cells, batteries, fuel cells, and sensors.

Large-Pore Mesoporous Ho3Fe5O12 Thin Films with a Strong Room-Temperature Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy by Sol–Gel Processing

“…As already indicated by AFM and TEM, the degree of pore ordering is not very high and is certainly less pronounced than in other polymer-templated nonsilicate oxides. [31][32][33][34][35][39][40][41][42][43][44] However, considering that the garnet material studied in this work is much more complex than the many binary oxides reported in the literature over the past two decades, the overall structure seems rather well-developed. The GISAXS patterns further indicate significant lattice contraction in the direction perpendicular to the substrate plane as a result of the progressive densification of the inorganic matrix and the associated release of NO x and H 2 O (see TGA-MS data in Figure S3 in the SI) upon heating; the in-plane contraction is negligible.…”

“…28,29 This process goes back to Brinker and coworkers; the basics of EISA have been described in detail in many papers and are not discussed here. [30][31][32][33][34][35] Similar to our recent work on mesostructured Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 films, 36 the synthesis is based on the coassembly of common hydrated nitrate salts with a polymer structure-directing agent (SDA). However, unlike the yttrium compound, the HoIG thin films show no typical signs of superparamagnetism, and further exhibit a large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.…”

Ordered Mesoporous Thin Film Ferroelectrics of Biaxially Textured Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) by Chemical Solution Deposition

“…Both the requirements on polymer structuredirecting agents in general and the fundamental principles of self-assembly and soft-templating have been described in excellent reviews elsewhere and, therefore, are not discussed here. [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] Apart from the synthesis, we show that the KLE-templated PZT thin films exhibit good ferroelectric properties and further have a high degree of biaxial texturing, that is, they possess both in-plane and out-of-plane preferred orientations. Biaxial alignment is common in sol-gel derived (bulk) materials deposited on single crystal substrates, but is unique for polymertemplated ordered mesoporous metal oxide films.…”

The Practicality of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles as Drug Delivery Devices and Progress Toward This Goal

“…These techniques allow access to more diverse functionalities on a single carrier than many competing polymer drug delivery systems. The ability to control the formation of particles with low polydispersity value in different pH also permits the use of many different types of templating agents including ionic surfactants (10), pluronic surfactants (11), and neutral block copolymers (12). Using different templating molecules helps to control pore size, pore ordering and particle size and morphology.…”