Control the Diameters of Mesoporous Silica Nanotubes by Varying Stirring Time

A chiral cationic gelator derived from L-alanine was synthesized. Sol-gel transcriptions were carried out to control mesoporous silica nanostructures using the organic self-assemblies of this gelator as templates. It was found that the morphologies of the obtained mesoporous silicas were sensitive to stirring time. With increasing the stirring time, the morphologies of mesoporous silicas changed from nanotubes constructed by double twisted nanoribbons to those constructed by single-strip coiled nanoribbons. The diameters of the nanotubes increased from 80 to 400 nm. This result indicated that the formation of the nanotubes following a dynamic templating process. For a better understanding the pore architectures, the TEM images of the mesoporous silicas were simulated using the 3D studio MAX software.