Perfluorodecalin Incorporation in Fluorinated Surfactant−Water System: Tailoring of Mesoporous Materials Pore Size

Oil incorporation can strongly affect the phase behavior of surfactant/water systems. In the first part of our experiments, the effect of perfluorodecalin (PFD) addition on the fluorinated surfactant CF 3 (CF 2 ) 7 C 2 H 4 (OC 2 H 4 ) 9 OH/water system was investigated. L 1 micellar phase, direct hexagonal (H 1 ), and cubic (I 1 ) liquid crystals were identified. Phase behavior and SAXS measurements proved that the liquid crystals phase can be swelled by PFD, whereas only 1% of oil can be incorporated into the hydrophobic core of micelles (L 1 ). Reflections lines of the cubic phase have been indexed in the Fm 3 m space group. Large pore mesoporous materials were then synthesized by incorporating PFD as a swelling agent. The present work shows that PFD is an effective expander to enlarge the pore size of mesoporous materials. Characterization of the recovered materials and evolution of CF 3 (CF 2 ) 7 C 2 H 4 (OC 2 H 4 ) 9 OH/water system with PFD loading led us to propose a mechanism describing the swelling effect of PFD.