Mesoporous tertiary oxides via a novel amphiphilic approach

Bennett, N., Seddon, A. M., Hallett, J. E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9747-9980, Kockelmann, W., Ting, V. P., Sadasivan, S., Tooze, R. P. and Hall, S. R. (2016) Mesoporous tertiary oxides via a novel amphiphilic approach. APL Materials, 4 (1). 015701. ISSN 2166-532X doi: 10.1063/1.4930808

Abstract/Summary

ABSTRACT We report a facile biomimetic sol-gel synthesis using the sponge phase formed by the lipid monoolein as a structure-directing template, resulting in high phase purity, mesoporous dysprosium- and gadolinium titanates. The stability of monoolein in a 1,4-butanediol and water mixture complements the use of a simple sol-gel metal oxide synthesis route. By judicious control of the lipid/solvent concentration, the sponge phase of monoolein can be directly realised in the pyrochlore material, leading to a porous metal oxide network with an average pore diameter of 10 nm.