Hydrophilic conditions: A new way for self-assembly of hybrid silica containing long alkylene chains

Abstract

For the first time, hybrid materials with long-range order (lamellar and even 2D hexagonal) were obtained during hydrolysis-polycondensation of α,ω-bis(trimethoxysilyl)alkanes thanks to hydrophobic van-der-Waals type interactions using highly hydrophilic conditions, the nanostructure depending mainly on the alkylene chain lengths. © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2005.