Porous Materials by Templating of Small Liquid Drops

Pursuing the Crystallization of Mono- and Polymetallic Nanosized Crystalline Inorganic Compounds by Low-Temperature Wet-Chemistry and Colloidal Routes

“…The pursuit of not only defined and tailored composition and crystalline structure but also of selected shapes and morphologies is currently a widely explored topic in the field of synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials displaying exotic morphologies. In this context, the employment of the so-called “structure-directing agents” such as templating agents and membranes, scaffolds, surfactants micelles, and ligands represents a versatile tool to direct the structural evolution of the targeted nanostructures. ,,,,,,− In fact, according to the nature and shape of the template, the resulting nanostructures display 3D, 1D, or hollow morphologies. As already outlined by Cushing et al in their comprehensive review on the topic, a sharp and unambiguous distinction and classification can be hardly performed, since the general definition of “template synthesis” encompasses a broad variety of synthetic approaches and methods which can be better described as hybrid approaches among further strategies (e.g., seeded growth in the presence of a ligand, colloidal-related methods, etc.).…”

From Plastic to Silicone: The Novelties in Porous Polymer Fabrications

“…In order for liquid droplets to be used as templates, the materials around the droplets ought to be solidified, and then this should be followed by the removal of the water droplets. The latter is achieved by solvent evaporation, which leads to the production of templated porous materials [41]. In this part, emulsion templating, the use of microemulsion templating for porous structures, and the breath figures pattern are explained.…”

“…In this strategy, preformed domains of a liquid component are stabilized by a surfactant or a stabilizer in order to prevent macroscopic phase separation [34]. Emulsions are two immiscible solvents mixed together with one phase in the form of droplets dispersed in the other phase [41]. Furthermore, an emulsion is made up mainly of three different parts [34]: the continuous or external phase, the dispersed or inner (aqueous) phase, and the surfactant.…”

“…For instance, an emulsion can be developed by dispersing water droplets in an oil phase, known as water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion, or dispersing oil droplets in water, known as oilin-water (O/W) emulsion. In addition, emulsions of CO 2 -inwater (C/W) have also been prepared and used for various applications including templating of porous materials [41]. In general, the technique involves forming a high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) in order to produce wide variety of porous polymers generally known as poly-HIPEs.…”