Molecular mechanisms of mesoporous silica formation from colloid solution: Ripening-reactions arrest hollow network structures
Fig 4
Scale-up modelling of colloid aggregation and ripening into mesoporous silica.
Left: illustration of the molecular surface (using the vmdICE plugin[38]) and the local electrostatic potential (ESP) of (A) the colloid model and. (B) the ripened dimer. The contact area is obtained as Acontact = Acolloid—½∙Adimer = 12.2 nm2. (C) Snapshots of the agglomeration simulation runs up to association and ripening of 75 colloids. The first colloid is highlighted in yellow, whilst subsequent snapshots use different colors to show old and new building blocks upon 2→10, 10→25, 25→35 and 35→75 evolution of agglomerates are shown in orange and brown, respectively.