Preparation of silica microrods with nano-sized pores in ionic liquid microemulsions

The microemulsions with ionic liquid (IL) as continuous phase were used to fabricate silica microrods. It was demonstrated that porous silica microrods with nano-sized pores could be prepared in this new type of microemulsions. The effects of water-to-surfactant molar ratio ( w ) and the adding amount of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) on the morphologies of the obtained silica were investigated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron diffraction (ED) were used to characterize the as-prepared products.