Critical effect of surfactant concentration on the structure of mesoporous silica films prepared on a substrate coated with rubbing-treated polyimide

The change of nonionic surfactant C-16(EO)(10) (Brij56) concentration has a critical effect on the structure of mesoporous silica films grown hydrothermally on a substrate coated with a rubbing-treated polyimide film. The uniaxially aligned two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal mesoporous structure changes into a "single-crystalline" three-dimensional (3D) hexagonal structure, which means that the in-plane arrangement of spherical pores of the 3D-hexagonal structure is fully controlled, by simply decreasing the surfactant concentration. The investigation of the early stages of the film formation suggests that the initial formation of the uniaxially aligned tubular micelles and the subsequent transformation to the spherical ones are included in the formation mechanism. It is considered that such a transformation is caused by the increase in the size of headgroups of the building units, consisting of the surfactants and silica oligomers, due to the progress of silica condensation. The small association number of surfactant molecules in the building units would allow the growth of silica oligomers in the headgroups to the level that induces the total restructuring.