Affiliation:
1. Department of Chemical Engineering University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara CA 93106 USA
2. School of Chemical Engineering Chonnam National University Gwangju 61186 Republic of Korea
3. Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia Spanish National Research Council (IQAC‐CSIC) Carrer Jordi Girona 16‐26 Barcelona 08034 Spain
4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering Technion Institute of Technology Haifa 32000 Israel
5. Department of Chemical Engineering Technion Institute of Technology Haifa 32000 Israel
Abstract
AbstractInorganic–organic mesophase materials provide a wide range of tunable properties, which are often highly dependent on their nano‐, micro‐, or meso‐scale compositions and structures. Among these are macroscopic orientational order and corresponding anisotropic material properties, the adjustability of which are difficult to achieve. This is due to the complicated transient and coupled transport, chemical reaction, and surface processes that occur during material syntheses. By understanding such processes, general criteria are established and used to prepare diverse mesostructured materials with highly aligned channels with uniform nanometer dimensions and controllable directionalities over macroscopic dimensions and thicknesses. This is achieved by using a micropatterned semipermeable poly(dimethylsiloxane) stamp to manage the rates, directions, and surfaces at which self‐assembling phases nucleate and the directions that they grow. This enables mesostructured surfactant‐directed silica and titania composites, including with functional guest species, and mesoporous carbons to be prepared with high degrees of hexagonal order, as well as controllable orthogonal macroscopic orientational order. The resulting materials exhibit novel anisotropic properties, as demonstrated by the example of direction‐dependent photocurrent generation, and are promising for enhancing the functionality of inorganic–organic nanocomposite materials in separations, catalysis, and energy conversion applications.
Funder
Army Research Office
Israel Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
Subject
Mechanical Engineering,Mechanics of Materials,General Materials Science