Hydrophilic conditions: a new way for self-assembly of hybrid silica containing long alkylene chains

For the first time, hybrid materials with long-range order (lamellar and even 2D hexagonal) were obtained during hydrolysis-polycondensation of alpha, omega-bis(trimethoxysilyl)alkanes thanks to hydrophobic van-der-Waals type interactions using highly hydrophilic conditions, the nanostructure depending mainly on the alkylene chain lengths.