Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2011
The synthesis of silicate/surfactant mesophases is driven by cooperative assembly of organic surfactant and inorganic silicate species, and the resultant mesophase morphology can be controlled by synthesis conditions (i.e., CTAB concentration in precursor solution and SiO2- CTAB mole ratio). The self-assembly process of these mesophases is driven complexation of the polyanionic silicate species with several CTAB cations to form a multi-tailed surfactant. One of these mesophases is a novel rippled lamellar phase in which the ripple wavelength and lamellar spacing are similar to the hexagonal mesophase rod center-to-center spacing; each of these dimensions are consistent with the length of two CTAB molecules.