UMR 5182

logo-ensl
You are here: Home / Research / Axes / Functional and Photonic Materials / Functional Systems / Surface chemical engineering in confined space

Surface chemical engineering in confined space

L. Bonneviot, B. Albela

Surface Chemical Engineering is developed in our team mostly in the confined space of mesoporous structured silica presenting very well defined size of pores in the range 2 to 100 nm.  The challenge is the control of the vicinity of the function.  For that prupose we have developped an original technique based on the so-called molecular stencil patterning (MSP) using ammonium ions electrostatically retained on a silica surface as masking agent.  These ions in self-electrostatic repulsion one to another maintain depending on their density a more or less dense regular coverage of the surface.  This masking pattern is kept during the functionnalization of the surface using organosilane to hydrophobize partially the surface  by reaction with the surface silanols groups.