Organization of phenylene-bridged hybrid mesoporous silisesquioxane with a crystal-like pore wall from a precursor with nonlinear symmetry

Synthesis of a highly ordered, two-dimensional hexagonal (P6mm) mesoporous benzene-silica composite having molecular-scale periodicity in the pore wall from the self-assembly of nonlinear symmetric 1,3-bis(triethoxysilyl)benzene and octadecyltrimethylammonium surfactant is described. The synthesis of hybrid organosilicas with mesoscopically ordered pores and molecularly ordered pore walls is not confined only to the symmetrically linear bridged organosilane precursors such as 1,4-bis(triethoxysilyl)benzene but a similar arrangement can also be formed by using nonlinear symmetric bridged organosilane precursors.