Large cavities (≈10–12.3 nm) of cubic (Fm‐3m) mesoporous silica without intergrowth are synthesized in the presence of block copolymer templates. The entrance sizes of these cavities can be adjusted in the range of ≈4–9 nm as confirmed by nitrogen sorption studies and an examination of the negative gold replicas. The 3D open mesostructures facilitate the transportation of biomolecules (see picture), as well as the replication of a large‐pore (9 nm) cubic mesoporous carbon.

Since the discovery of a new family of mesoporous silicate materials, denoted M41S and including , by researchers at Mobil, [1] major developments have been made in this field. A great variety of mesostructures has been obtained, including mesoporous silica, metal oxides, metals, carbon, and hybrid organosilicates. [2] Up to now, the main research efforts have concentrated on the MCM-41 silica structure, which consists of a hexagonal packing of one-dimensional (1D) channels (p6mm), and fewer investigations have been reported on mesoporous MCM-48, which has a 3D bicontinuous mesostructure (Ia3d). This may result from the small domain of this cubic phase (Ia3d) of MCM-48 in phase diagrams. Several methodologies have been developed for the syntheses of mesoporous silica MCM-48 by using a cationic alkylammonium surfactant, [1, 3] mixed cationic/anionic surfactants, [4] or cationic/nonionic surfactants as templates. [5] Generally, these syntheses were carried out under the severe conditions of high-temperature (! 100 8C) hydrothermal synthesis in alkaline aqueous media. Relatively expensive ionic surfactants were employed, and the resulting mesostructures have a limited range of small pore sizes (pore diameter 1.5±4.5 nm). These restrictions may limit the potential applications of 3D bicontinuous mesoporous materials as adsorbents, separators, and catalysts.Here we report the synthesis of large-pore 3D bicontinuous mesoporous silica (designated FDU-5) at room temperature in acidic media by using a commercial nonionic triblock copolymer as template and an organosiloxane or organic compound as additive. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first preparation of Ia3d mesostructured material at room temperature under acidic conditions. The FDU-5 products have uniform large pores (4.5±9.5 nm). Such mesoporous materials with large 3D bicontinuous pores could have applications in sorption and transport, especially of large molecules.Large-pore 3D bicontinuous mesoporous FDU-5 was synthesized at room temperature in ethanol solution by a solvent-evaporation method. Triblock poly(ethylene oxide)b-poly(propylene oxide)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) copolymer (EO 20 PO 70 EO 20 , P123) was used as template, tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as silica source, and a small amount of 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTS), benzene, or a benzene derivative (methyl-, ethyl-, dimethyl-, or trimethylbenzene) as additive.Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images and corresponding Fourier diffractograms recorded along the [100], [111], [110], and [331] directions of calcined FDU-5 silica prepared with P123 as template and MPTS as additive in acidic medium at room temperature are shown in Figure 1. These images clearly show that the products have large domains of ordered 3D bicontinuous mesostructure. The two principal directions displaying continuous pores are [100] and [111] (Figure 1 a,b), and two types of hexagonally packed dots with different sizes and darknesses (Figure 1 b) are clearly observed. The images shown in Figure 1 are be...

The growth of ordered nanorods of mesoporous SBA-15 inside a porous alumina membrane has been achieved for the first time by a simple sol-gel method. The obtained SBA-15 nanorods themselves have ordered hexagonal mesochannels with a size of about 6 nm and have been arranged to form hexagonal arrays by the limitation of pores of the alumina membrane. The synthesized alumina membrane with mesoporous SBA-15 inside combines the advantages of porous alumina membranes and mesoporous SBA-15 and provides fine and vertical mesochannels, which may serve as a new and efficient mold and lead to extensive applications in nanodevice fabrication, biomacromolecule separations, etc.

A biomolecule-assisted simple technique has been developed for the spontaneous ordering of the Bi2S3 nanorods into snowflakelike superstructures in high yield under microwave-hydrothermal conditions. In this method, glutathione (GSH) is used as both an assembling agent and a sulfur source. By controlling the molar ratio between bismuth nitrate and glutathione as well as the synthetic temperature, several kinds of Bi2S3 one-dimensional nanomaterials such as snowflakelike structures, nanowires constructed of particles, short nanorods, and fine and long nanowires have been controllably synthesized.