Xiaoying Liu

Synthesis of Ordered Mesoporous Carbon Monoliths with Bicontinuous Cubic Pore Structure of Ia3d Symmetry

Large-diameter-sized mesoporous carbon monoliths with bicontinuous cubic structure of Ia3d symmetry have been synthesized by using mesoporous silica monoliths as hard templates; such carbon monoliths show potential application of advanced electrodes and electrochemical double layer capacitors.

Microwave assisted template removal of siliceous porous materials

Organic templates of meso- and macro-porous siliceous materials can be completely removed within minutes by microwave digestion, resulting in highly ordered inorganic frameworks with higher surface areas, larger pore volumes, lower structural shrinkage and richer silanol groups compared with those from conventional template removal methods.

Novel approaches to synthesize self-supported ultrathin carbon nanowire arrays templated by MCM-41

Ordered self-supported ultrathin carbon nanowire arrays with small mesopore sizes have been fabricated for the first time employing mesoporous silica MCM-41 as the templates, and two possible related mechanisms are proposed.

Designer synthesis of mesoporous solids via block copolymer templating pathway

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the synthesis of mesoporous solids via block-copolymer templating pathway. The delicate construction of materials with tailored textures and functionalities is regarded as a key step toward new technologies. During the past decade, research on mesostructured materials has sparked great contributions, because of their potentially valuable applications in areas, such as catalysis, sensors, semiconductors, and photonic and electronic microdevices. Amphiphilic block copolymers, with at least two distinct moieties and regarded as macromolecular analogs of molecular weight surfactants, are the focus of a great wealth of research in contemporary materials and macromolecular science. Self-assembled macro- and meso-structures of block copolymers provide a tremendous tool for controlling the spatial formation of various nanomaterials. The study of amphiphilic block-polymer template mesostructured materials is an emerging research area offering enormous scientific and technological promise. Compared with ionic surfactants, block copolymers have become more and more popular and powerful in the synthesis of mesoporous solids, because of their diverse structural characteristics, rich phase behaviors, low cost, nontoxic degradation, and many other merits. Different synthetic methodologies have been developed to fabricate periodic mesoporous silica materials in the past few years. By carefully manipulating the processing variables, such as temperature, pH, ionic strength, reaction time, and solution composition, ordered mesoporous solids have been obtained from different nonionic amphiphilic block copolymers with variable structures and adjustable physical properties.

Nanoporous arrays of metal sulfides templated by mesoporous silica

By using mesoporous silica SBA-15 as a hard template, ordered crystalline nanoporous arrays of binary metal Sulfides such as CdS, ZnS, In2S3, have been synthesized for the first time employing two simple impregnation reaction procedures from two separate precursors (metal and sulfur precursors). In the one-step synthetic process, the metal and sulfide precursors were introduced into the channels of SBA-15 simultaneously followed by ail annealing heat treatment. The resulted nanoporous metal sulfides are composed of ordered crystalline nanowire arrays connected with short rods, which have great potential in applications for the development of electronic, photonic and catalytic systems. While in the two-step process, the two precursors were incorporated into SBA-15 sequentially. As a result, either loosely packed nanoporous arrays or winding nanoropes have been obtained depending on the metal and sulfide species utilized. The optical properties have been characterized by UV-vis diffuse reflectance and photoluminescence (PL) analyses.

General synthesis of ordered stable nonsiliceous mesoporous solids via "acid-base pairs"

Abstract In the present work, we greatly and predictively extend the mesoporous materials family by introducing a new concept “acid-base pairs”. This concept takes a different perspective in enabling inorganic/organic self-assembly in mesostructured materials. Using this approach we have successfully obtained a wide range of ordered composites, including metal oxides, mixed metal oxides, metal phosphates and metal borates. The “acid-base pairs” not only self-generate sufficient acids to restrain the polymerization of inorganic species, but also facilitate the formation of homogeneous multi-component inorganic walls that are thermally stable.