Mesostructure of Mesoporous Silica/Anodic Alumina Hierarchical Membranes Tuned with Ethanol.

Hierarchically structured membranes composed of mesoporous silica embedded inside the channels of anodic alumina (MS-AAM) were synthesized using the aspiration method. Ethanol is shown to have a significant effect on the type and organization of the mesoporous silica phase. Detailed textural analysis revealed that the pore size distribution of the mesoporous silica narrows and the degree of ordering increases with decreasing ethanol concentration used in the synthesis mixture.