Preparation and characterizaion of CTAB-templated large pore silica nanocomposite films

CTAB-templated large pore silica nano-composite films were prepared by means of a two-step acid-catalyzed and solgel process using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as the precursor, Surfactant cetyltrimethy- ammonium bromide (CTAB) as an organic template to generate the uniformity pore structure and 1,3,5-trimethyl benzene (TMB) as organic swelling agent. The obtained samples were characterized by XRD, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). We found that the TMB/CTAB mol ratio must be controlled well for producing large pore materials.