Use of confinement effects in mesoporous materials to build tailored nanoarchitectures

CONTRERAS, CINTIA BELÉN; AZZARONI, OMAR; SOLLER-ILLIA, GALO

"Comprehensive Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Elsevier

Año: 2019; p. 331 - 347

In the last two decades, a remarkable proficiency was achieved in both the synthesis and the physical characterization of mesoporous materials (MM), which present high surface areas, and organized arrays of monodisperse pores, with diameters tunable between 2 and 50 nm. This length scale is somehow “magic”, due to the relevant effects of the proximity of a surface, combined with the existence of condensed matter (solvent, analytes, reagents) in the mesopore space. Different MM have been thoroughly studied for the fundamental interest in chemistry and physics under confinement, as well as their possible applications in numerous fields such as heterogeneous catalysis, sensing, optics, drug delivery, cell growth and bioimaging. The synthetic community has acquired a large expertise in controlling the size and shape of nanoscopic cavities in inorganic and organic solids, and in their functionalization with a large variety of species, ranging from molecular groups to polymers, biomolecules or nanospecies.