Shear-Induced Alignment and Nanowire Silica Synthesis in a Rigid Crystalline Surfactant Mesophase.

The article shows that sufficiently rigid crystalline surfactant mesophases can be shear-aligned to create templates for materials synthesis and that the structure of the template is reflected in the morphology of the ceramic. It utilizes a system comprised of the anionic surfactant AOT mixed with the bisurfactant, zwitterionic lecithin, in the molar ratio 2:1. When this two-surfactant mixture is dissolved in a nonpolar solvent, and water is progressively added, the system evolves from a low viscosity solution to a gellike state with crystalline order illustrated through small-angle neutron scattering measurements.