Nanofabrication of highly ordered, tunable metallic mesostructures via quasi-hard-templating of lyotropic liquid crystals

The synthesis of metal frameworks perforated with nanotunnels is a challenge because metals have high surface energies that favor low surface area structures; traditional liquid-crystal templating techniques cannot achieve the synthetic control required. We report a synthetic strategy to fabricate metal nanomaterials with highly ordered, tunable mesostructures in confined systems based on a new quasi-hard-templating liquid-crystals mechanism. The resulting platinum nanowires exhibit long range two-dimensional hexagonally ordered mesopore structures. In addition, single crystalline hexagonal mesoporous platinum nanowires with dominant {110} facets have been synthesized. Finally, we demonstrate that the mesostructures of metal nanomaterials can be tuned from hexagonal to lamellar mesostructures.