Thermally Driven Self-Assembly of Nanomicelles: A Facile Route to Functional Monodisperse Mesoporous Colloidal Nanocomposites of Inorganic Nature and Mesoscale Size

Thermally driven self-assembly of nanomicelles can be a feasible route to produce monodisperse porous colloidal nanocomposites of inorganic nature and sizes around the mesoscale (below 100 nm). Success relies on extending the lifetime of intermediate droplets (size below about 100 inn) that are obtained under particular conditions. Herein, the conditions for the long-term stabilization of these unique templates are studied and a model proposed to produce monodisperse porous colloidal nanocomposites. As an example of the potential applications of this methodology, functional colloidal nanocomposites with a high loading of the doping material (30 mol%) are obtained. In particular, superparamagnetic nanomagnets of metallic nature encapsulated in porous oxide colloidal matrixes of mesoscale size that easily respond to an external magnetic field are prepared and characterized in terms of structure and textural and magnetic properties.