Discoid Bicelles as Efficient Templates for Pillared Lamellar Periodic Mesoporous Silicas at pH 7 and Ultrafast Reaction Times

Abstract

We report the first synthesis of periodic mesoporous silicas templated by bicelles. The obtained materials form novel pillared lamellar structures with a high degree of periodic order, narrow pore size distributions, and exceptionally high surface areas.

Figure 1

Two-dimensional projection of bicelle and chemical structures of DMPC and DHPC.

Figure 2

Small angle X-ray diffraction patterns (top) and cartoons of bicelle-templated silica structures (bottom). Bottom left: As-synthesized BMS-1 structure. Bottom right: Extracted BMS-2 structure. Grey: bicelles, Orange: silica layers, Green and blue: silica pillars.

Figure 3

a N₂ sorption isotherms, and b PSD of BMS samples. The PSD were calculated from the desorption branch of the isotherm using BJH method.

Figure 4

TEM images of a BMS-2, b BMS-3, and c BMS-6. The inset of figure b shows the corresponding Fourier transform images.