Assembly of nonionic-anionic co-surfactants to template mesoporous silica vesicles with hierarchical structures

Mesoporous silica vesicles (MSV) with a hierarchical structure were developed using triblock copolymer Pluronic P103 and anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as a co-surfactant in the present of an inorganic salt, sodium fluoride (NaF). To some extent, variation in the particle size and vesicle cavity diameter can be achieved by adjusting the anionic-nonionic surfactant molar ratio. An onion-like vesicle morphology was obtained by changing the inorganic salt concentration. Based on the fitting of small angle neutron scattering data, a formation mechanism has been proposed. This work opens up a new way to synthesize mesoporous silica vesicles with controllable hierarchical structure using nonionic surfactant P103 and anionic surfactant SDS. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.