Surfactant-Templated Mesoporous Metal Oxide Nanowires

We demonstrate two approaches to prepare mesoporous metal oxide nanowires by surfactant assembly and nanoconfinement via sol-gel or electrochemical deposition. For example, mesoporous Ta2O5 and zeolite nanowires are prepared by block copolymer Pluronic 123-templated sol-gel method, and mesoporous ZnO nanowires are prepared by electrodeposition in presence of anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant, in porous membranes. The morphologies of porous nanowires are studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses.