Room temperature growth of mesoporous silica fibers: A new high‐surface‐area optical waveguide

High‐quality, hexagonal phase, mesoporous silica fibers (see Figure) can be grown by the general procedure for one‐step, two‐phase, room temperature synthesis reported here. The silica fibers, which are 1–5 μm in diameter and up to 5 cm long, have excellent long‐range order, a narrow pore size distribution, and a pore volume of up to 0.78 cm 3 /g. The birefringent fibers can be used as high‐surface‐area optical fibers. magnified image