Anionic surfactant templated mesoporous silica (AMS)

Anionic surfactant templated mesoporous silicas (AMSs) were prepared by using anionic surfactant as the template and aminopropylsiloxane or quaternized aminopropylsiloxane as the co-structure directing agent (CSDA). Diverse mesophases were discovered, from AMS-1 to 10, including the structures of three dimensional (3d-) hexagonal, 3d-tetragonal, 3d-cubic, 2d-hexagonal, bicontinuous cubic and lamellar. This novel route to prepare mesoporous materials also leads to the formation of chiral mesoporous silica with helical mesopores running inside, by using chiral anionic surfactant as the template, and the helicity and morphology can be simply controlled by the stirring rate during the synthesis. Mesoporous silicas, functionalized with amino and quaternary ammonium groups and with the various structures given above were obtained by extraction of surfactant. Finally, the formation mechanism of AMS was discussed from the view of the kinetics and energetics, respectively.