Surfactant-assisted synthesis of helical silica

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/j.ica.2006.07.038

Amorphous helical silica was synthesized at room temperature from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) under the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in acidic conditions. The formation conditions of the silica helices were studied carefully. It was foun

Full text of DOI:10.1016/j.ica.2006.07.038

Inorganica Chimica Acta 360 (2007) 241–245
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Surfactant-assisted synthesis of helical silica
*
Xuemei Li, Yinglan Wu, Yan Li
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices,
College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Received 16 June 2006; accepted 13 July 2006
Available online 25 July 2006
Inorganic Chemistry – The Next Generation.
Abstract
Amorphous helical silica was synthesized at room temperature from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) under the presence of cetyltrimethy-
lammonium bromide (CTAB) in acidic conditions. The formation conditions of the silica helices were studied carefully. It was found that
the reaction time and temperature, molar ratio of TEOS and CTAB and types of acids are crucial to the formation of helices.
ꢀ 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Silica; Helix; Surfactant; CTAB
1. Introduction
more and more important in many fields. Along with the
fast increasing of application studies, more reliable and
economic preparation strategies of helical silica are needed.
In this paper, we reported a very convenient method for the
fabrication of silica helices in solution.
In the past few years, numerous studies have been car-
ried out on the synthesis and characterization of various
quasi one-dimensional (1D) materials [1]. Recently, nano-
helix has attracted much attention in nanoscience because
of its unique structure and specific property [2]. Although
helical structure is common in nature, e.g. double helices
in DNA, it is still a hard work to obtain inorganic materials
with helical morphology. Many efforts have been made to
get helical nanostructures of inorganic materials by using
chemical vapor deposition and template methods. Some
inorganic materials with helical structure have been synthe-
sized including carbon nanotube [3], oxides [2,4–6], metals
[7] and other materials [8]. Among all of the inorganic heli-
cal nanostructures, silica is one of the most intensively
studied objects [5,6]. The helical silica was normally
obtained by templated methods [5] or via sol–gel pathways
[6]. Helical silica has been used in enantioselective synthesis
of organic compounds [9]. 1D silica can also be used in
chromatography and luminescence [10], and it is becoming
2. Experimental
The Silica helix was synthesized by a cetyltrimethylam-
monium bromide (CTAB)-assisted solution approach in
acidic conditions. The procedure involves the formation
of a mixed solution of HNO3 and surfactant CTAB and
the subsequent growth of silica helix by the hydrolyzation
of the tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) in the above solution.
A typical synthesis is as follows: A mixture of H2O/CTAB/
HNO3 (H2O: 20 ml, CTAB: 1.25 · 10À3 mol dmÀ3, HNO3:
2 mol dmÀ3) was stirred in a 50 mL beaker at room
temperature for 20 min, after which TEOS was added.
The solution was then kept under quiescent conditions
for 2 h. The molar ratio of H2O:HNO3:CTAB:TEOS was
varied in the range of 100:3.6:0.18–0.0045:0.45. The resul-
tant materials were filtered, washed with distilled water
and ethanol several times and air-dried. Ultrasonic and
stirring were also used in some experiments in order to
*
Corresponding author. Fax: 86 10 62756773.
E-mail address: yanli@pku.edu.cn (Y. Li).
0020-1693/$ - see front matter ꢀ 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ica.2006.07.038

242
X. Li et al. / Inorganica Chimica Acta 360 (2007) 241–245
study the effect of solution state. Ultrasonic irradiation was
accomplished with two types of sonicator, one is B5-E
Ultrasonic Cleaner (55 6% kHz, 21 W cmÀ2, Bransonic,
USA), and the other is JY92-2D Sonifier with a high-inten-
sity ultrasonic probe (10 mm diameter, Ti horn, 20 kHz, 0–
1000 W cmÀ2, Xinzhi Co., China). The morphology and
size of the products were studied by transmission electron
microscopy (TEM) with a JEOL 200CX microscope oper-
ating at 120 kV.
Selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns indicate
that the products were of amorphous structure.
In order to investigate the formation mechanism of
helix, several experiments were carried out to determine
the factors that are important for the formation of helical
silica.
Adjusting the growth time can modify the quantity
and diameter of helices. Along with the increase of reac-
tion time, the quantity of helices increased at first, at the
mean time, the diameter of the helices became larger
(Fig. 2). However, when the reaction time exceeded 8 h,
the diameter of helix became smaller and smaller and
the quantity became less and less. At last, the helix dis-
appeared. This indicates that the silica helices are unsta-
ble and this kinetically metastable state is transformed
into a more thermodynamically stable phase during
aging.
The as-prepared products were further treated by calci-
nation at 560 ꢁC in air for 6 h or through a solvothermal
process using ethanol as solvent at 150 ꢁC for 63 h.
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 1A shows a typical TEM image of as-prepared silica
helices at room temperature under quiescent condition.
The helices are 50–80 nm in diameter and several to tens
of micrometers in length. As shown in Fig. 1B–G, except
single helices, double helix and hollow helix can also be
obtained in the products. The pitch distance and helical
angle of different helices are diverse. The EDX spectrum
reveals that the helices consist of silicon and oxygen.
The concentration of CTAB is one of the important
factors for the formation of helices. Silica helices were
obtained at CTAB/TEOS molar ratios of 1/2.5–1/100,
and no helices were produced if the ratios went beyond the
range. The optimal molar ratios are 1/40–1/50 (CCTAB
6.25 · 10À3–5.00 · 10À3 mol dmÀ3).
=
Fig. 1. TEM images of silica helices under quiescent conditions for 2 h. The molar ratio of H2O:HNO3:CTAB:TEOS was 100:3.6:0.0113:0.45. (A) silica
helices with 50–80 nm in diameter and several to tens of micrometers in length, inserted is the corresponding EDX spectrum; (B) and (C) single helix with
different pitch distance; (D) double helix; (E) hollow helix; (F) hollow helix and single helix at different area of a helix; (G) amplified image of (F).

X. Li et al. / Inorganica Chimica Acta 360 (2007) 241–245
243
Fig. 2. TEM images of silica helices under quiescent conditions at various reaction time: (A) 1 h; (B) 2 h; (C) 3 h; (D) 8 h. The molar ratio of
H2O:HNO3:CTAB:TEOS was 100:3.6:0.0113:0.45.
Stirring and ultrasonic were also used in the experiments
(Fig. 3). No obvious change was observed for the forma-
tion of helices. When ultrasonic was used, some hollow
helices and nanotubes could be found in the products in
lower power (<100 W) as shown in Fig. 3C and D, and
no helical structure were obtained when the sonication
power was further increased.
The use of acids is crucial to the formation of shape-
controlled silica helices. Besides HNO3, the helices were
also obtained in HBr (Fig. 4) media. Especially, beautiful
Fig. 3. TEM images of silica helices obtained at stirring and ultrasonic condition for 2 h. (A) stirring; (B) ultrasonic by a B5-E Ultrasonic Cleaner
(55 6% kHz, 21 W cmÀ2); (C) and (D) hollow helices and nanotubes obtained by ultrasonic using a JY92-2D Sonifier with a high-intensity ultrasonic
probe (10 mm diameter, Ti horn, 20 kHz, 0–1000 W cmÀ2). The molar ratio of H2O:HNO3:CTAB:TEOS was 100:3.6:0.0113:0.45 in (A) and (B) and
100:3.6:0.09:0.45 in (C) and (D).

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X. Li et al. / Inorganica Chimica Acta 360 (2007) 241–245
Fig. 4. Typical TEM images of silica helices obtained when HBr was used. (A) helix from stirring, (B) double helices obtained by B5-E Ultrasonic Cleaner
The molar ratio of H2O:HBr:CTAB:TEOS was 100:3.6:0.025:0.45.
double helices were obtained under sonication with the B5-
E Ultrasonic Cleaner (Fig. 4b). However, no silica helices
are obtained if H2SO4, HCl and HAc were used in the reac-
salt. However, no helix was found with these surfac-
tants. This proves that the use of CTAB is essential to
the formation of helical silica. Temperature is also
another parameter influencing the formation of Silica
helices. At higher temperature (e.g. 50 ꢁC), no helices
were got.
tion. It was reported that NO3 and BrÀ anions have
À
greater attraction to integrate with the aggregates of CTAB
(e.g. micelles) than SO4 and ClÀ and promote the forma-
2À
tion of more complex surfactant structures [11]. This might
be the reason why helical silica only formed in HNO3 and
HBr media.
It was found that no helix formed without the
participation of surfactant CTAB. We also tried other
surfactants including dodecylamine, Triton X-100, Span
40, AOT, Tween 20 and dodecyl sulphonic acid sodium
The products were further treated by calcination or
solvothermal process (Fig. 5). The helices of silica were
shortened after calcination at 560 ꢁC for 6 h. Many pores
appeared in the helices after solvothermal process using
ethanol as solvent at 150 ꢁC for 63 h. Though the morphol-
ogy of the silica changed a little, however, the helical struc-
ture preserved after the treatment.
Fig. 5. (A) and (B) Silica helix after calcination at 560 ꢁC for 6 h; (C)–(E) Silica helix after solvothermal process using ethanol as solvent at 150 ꢁC for 63 h.
The molar ratio of H2O:HNO3:CTAB:TEOS in (A) and (B) was 100:3.6:0.0113:0.45.

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Based on the above experimental results and discus-
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This work was supported by the NSF (Project
90406018), MOST (Project 2001CB610501) and MOE of
China.