Thermal Hydrogen Reduction For Preservation Of Mesoporous Silica Film Nanocomposites With A Hexagonal Structure Containing Amphiphilic Triphenylene

We highlight that columnar assembly of self-assembled templates was successfully utilized using sol-gel technique of mesostructured silica for the quality improvement of transparent mesoporous film nanocomposites with a hexagonal structure through appropriate heat treatment methods and self-assembled templates in the removal of organic components. In contrast to the reported mesostructured silica film nanocomposites containing columnar assembly of trinuclear gold(I) pyrazolate complex ([Au3Pz3]C10TEG/silicahex) with calcination at 450 °C, mesostructured silica film nanocomposites from self-assembled template of triphenylene bearing amphiphilic decoxy triethylene glycol side chains (TPC10TEG/silicahex) can be completely collapsed upon calcination at 450 °C. This hexagonal structure can be only preserved with calcination at 250 °C although intensity of its main diffraction peak of d100 at 2θ of 3.70° was significantly decreased. On the other hands, thermal hydrogen reduction at the same temperature was found to be the best heat treatment to preserve the quality of mesoporous silica film nanocomposites with decreasing in intensity of diffraction peak up to 30%. Such phenomenon might be caused by slow decomposition of organic components with the presence of hydrogen gas upon heating to shrinkage the silica wall from interpenetration of ethylene glycol segments of the side chains and to open bonding of benzene ring from the core.