Porous crystals of cubic metal oxides templated by cage-containing mesoporous silica

Porous single crystals of cubic Co3O4, NiO, In2O3 and CeO2 were fabricated using cage-containing SBA-16 and FDU-12 as hard templates, and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and N-2 adsorption/desorption. Unsuccessful synthesis of non-cubic metal oxides implies that the symmetries of the oxide structures have a significant effect on crystal growth inside the mesopore networks in these templates. A possible mechanism of crystal growth in the confined spherical cages is discussed.