THE ROLE OF DEFECTS IN THE FORMATION OF MESOPOROUS SILICA FIBERS, FILMS, AND CURVED SHAPES

The main goal of this research news article is to describe how differe nt kinds of topological defects that exist in a silicate liquid crysta l seed can initiate and direct the growth of particular forms of mesop orous silica. This avenue of investigation emerged from the results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and polarized optical microscopy (POM) studies of hexagonal mesoporous silica fibers, films, and curve d shapes, which delineated the essential relations between synthesis c onditions, morphology, bulk and surface mesostructure, and optical bir efringence textures.([1-3]) While SEMs of faceted mesoporous silica fi rst appeared in 1992,([4]) the recognition, understanding, and signifi cance of morphogenesis of mesoporous silica with curved shapes emerged in a series of papers from our laboratory.