Mesoporous and mesostructured materials for optical applications

Mesostructured and mesoporous materials are emerging as a new class of opti cal materials. For mesostructured materials (inorganic/surfactant composite s), prepared using a one-step synthesis procedure where the inorganic/surfa ctant/optically active species coassemble, the unique architecture provided by the surfactant-inorganic phase separation allows for higher concentrati ons compared to traditional sol-gel glasses and protective packaging of uni form three-dimensional arrays of optical species. The corresponding regular ly arranged pores found in mesoporous materials (inorganic only) provide a high surface area to better disperse optically active components and allow for rapid diffusion for optical sensor applications. In this review, we dis cuss recent research results on the techniques used to produce optically fu nctionalized mesostructured and mesoporous materials and the characterizati on of the final composites.