Preparation of Hierarchical Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles through a Single-Templating Approach

Silicas with hierarchical porous architectures attracted much attention, due to their potential applications in catalysis and separation. Generally, they were prepared through dualor triple-templating approaches. Herein, mesoporous silica nanoparticles with rod-like pore channels inside and lamellar mesopores on the surfaces were prepared using the self-assemblies of a chiral low-molecular-weight amphiphile as templates through a single-templating approach. The formation of the lamellar mesopores was studied by taking field-emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy images after different reaction times. The lamellar pores were proposed to be formed by merging rod-like micelles during the sol-gel process. Moreover, helical nanofibers with rod-like pore channels inside and lamellar mesopores on the surfaces were prepared with the addition of n-octanol as a co-structure-directing agent.