Aerosol-assisted formation of mesostructured thin films

A new aerosol-assisted surfactant self-assembly approach has been developed for large-scale mesostructured silica thin film fabrication. The formation mechanism involves coalescence of semisolid surfactant-silica mesostructured particles on substrates (see Figure) and subsequent reassembly of the mesostructures to adapt the morphology transformation from spherical to planar shape.