Chelating template-assisted fabrication of cobalt oxide/mesoporous silica composites with diverse mesophases

Abstract

A series of cobalt oxide/mesoporous silica composites with diverse mesostructure was fabricated via a one-step process by using N-hexadecyl ethylenediamine triacetic acid (HED3A), a chelating surfactant, as structure-directing agent (SDA). The chelating template can capture cobalt ions in solution and then direct the mesophase formation, enables cobalt oxide nanoparticles to be confined and evenly distributed in the mesopores after calcination. The mesophase of the composites has a successive evolution from 3D cubic to 2D hexagonal, bicontinuous cubic and lamellar phase with increasing the cobalt ion concentration in the initial template solution. The presented chelating surfactant-assistant encapsulation route has the capability to achieve various types of metal oxides/mesoporous silica composites with homogeneous guest dispersion and diversiform mesostructures.