ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Morphology dependence of 1,2-diphenylethylenediamine-derived organogelator templates in solvents and their influence in the production of nanostructured silica

Tae Kyu Kim, Euh Duck Jeong, Chae Young Oh, Myung Ho Hyun, Mee Sung Lee, Hae Kyeong Moon, Jong-Pil Kim, Ok-Sang Jung, F. Nawaz Khan, and Jong Sung Jin

Department of Chemistry and Chemistry Institute for Functional Materials, Pusan National University, Busan, 609-735 Republic of Korea

E-mail: nawaz_f@yahoo.co.in

Abstract: The 1,2-diphenylethylenediamine-based neutral or cationic organogelator-templates, currently employed in the production of silica nanomaterials, were initially evaluated for their versatile gelation ability and found to be gelled in the majority of organic solvents tested. Scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope, images of neutral organogels made from different solvents revealed that they assembled into a plate-shaped, or rod-shaped morphology, respectively in ethanol or butan-1-ol and in acetonitrile or tetrahydrofurane. Similarly, a 1: 1 mixture (mass) of neutral and cationic gelators formed different morphologies in the solvents tested. Sol-gel polycondensation of tetraethoxy silane using either individual gels (neutral or cation) or a 1: 1 mixture of gels was explored. The experimental results and the scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy images revealed that silica nanotubes with an inner diameter of 82 nm and an outer diameter of 620 nm were obtained from the 1: 1 mixture of neutral and cationic gelator in ethanol, whereas silica nanoparticles were obtained using gels made in the other solvents tested.

Keywords: organogels – solvent effect – morphology – silica nanomaterials – nanotubes

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-011-0042-1

Chemical Papers 65 (4) 495–503 (2011)