Mesoporous Membrane
- Now Published
- This work was reviewed in Nature Materials "Cover & News".
C. R. Martin and Z. Siwy, "Molecular Filters: Pores within Pores"
Nature Materials, 3, 284-285 (2004).
Fig. 1
A mesoporous membrane composed of nanotubules with a uniform diameter has a potential use for precise size exclusive separation of molecules. We report a novel method to form a hybrid membrane composed of silica-surfactant nanocomposite and a porous alumina membrane, by which size selective transport of molecules across the membrane becomes to be possible. The nanocomposite formed inside each columnar alumina pore was an assembly of surfactant-templated silica-nanochannels with a 3.4 nm channel diameter, and the channel direction is predominantly oriented along the wall of the columnar alumina pore. Molecules could be transported across the membrane including the silica-surfactant nanocomposite with a capability of nm-order size exclusive separation. Our proposed membrane system has a potential use for not only separation science but also catalytic science and chip technologies.
