Fabrication and characterization of tunable uniform octahedral nanoporous inorganic silica membranes by assembly under a direct electric field

A facile method is first reported to fabricate uniform octahedral nanoporous inorganic silica membranes with a highly ordered and rigid array structure. The size of these uniform membranes ranged from 23.2 to 154.7 nm. In order to improve the mechanical strength of membranes, calcination was necessary and could adjust the size of these membranes in a limited range. Pore size distributions were tested by the mercury intrusion method.