Mesoscale self-assembly of reactive monomicelles: General strategy toward phloroglucinol-formaldehyde aerogels with ordered mesoporous structures and enhanced mechanical properties

Abstract

Here, using reactive monomicelles as building blocks for mesoscale self-assembly, we demonstrate a general strategy for the preparation of robust phloroglucinol-formaldehyde (PF) aerogels with ordered mesoporosity and well-defined biomimetic truss frameworks, and thus possess enhanced mechanical properties and good recoverable compressibility. Besides, the prepared aerogels reveal interesting morphology enhanced sticky superhydrophobicity. A plausible formation mechanism was proposed which involving the formation of spherical reactive F127/PF oligomer monomicelles, then join together and elongate into rod-like micelles, which further aggregate to form ordered hexagonal nanorods and finally growth to form monolithic aerogels. This work encourages the further utilization of mesoscale self-assembly of monomicelles as a general and powerful strategy for the biomimetic synthesis of hierarchically porous monolithic materials possess highly ordered mesoscale structures and excellent mechanical properties.