A Mesoporous Superlattice Consisting of Alternately Stacking Interstitial Nanospace within Binary Silica Colloidal Crystals.

A novel class of nonclassical structures of mesoporous silica, namely a binary nanoparticle mesoporous superlattice (BNMS), is obtained by the assembly of silica nanospheres of different sizes into a binary colloidal crystal. The colloidal crystal has a CrB-type structure and consists of alternate stacks of unary fcc and binary AlB2 -type structures along the b axis and has four types of interstitial mesopores. The BNMS can be deposited on a substrate by dip coating to form an oriented thin film in which the direction of the superstructure (b axis) is perpendicular to the substrate.