Langmuir, Vol.29, No.6, 2007-2023, 2013
Formation of Nanostructured Silica Materials Templated with Nonionic Fluorinated Surfactant Followed by in Situ SAXS
The formation of two-dimensional (2D)-hexagonal (p6m) silica-based hybrid materials from concentrated micellar solutions (10 wt %) of two nonionic fluorinated surfactants, R-7(F)(EO)(8) and R-8(F)(EO)(9), is investigated in situ using synchrotron time-resolved small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The two surfactants form direct micelles with different structures prior to the silica precursor addition as demonstrated by SAXS and SANS. R-8(F)(EO)(9) gives spherical micelles and R-7(F)(EO)(8) more complex ones, modeled here as short wormlike micelles. The in situ SAXS experiments reveal that both surfactants form well-ordered 2D-hexagonal hybrid materials after the addition of the silica precursor, in coexistence with an excess of surfactant micelles. The structures of both 2D-hexagonal phases are compared just after precipitation, and it is found that more robust and larger silica walls are formed for R-8(F)(EO)(9) than for R-7(F)(EO)(8). This could explain why only the material obtained with R-8(F)(EO)(9) is stable upon washing, as observed previously. Moreover, it is proposed that in both cases, only a part of the micelles interact with the silica oligomers and undergo structural modifications before forming the 2D-hexagonal mesophase. The obtained results are finally discussed in the more general framework of the templating mechanism for nonionic surfactants.