The Production of Mesoporous Silica Substrates for Use as Electrodeposition Templates

The available project is concerned with the production of mesoporous silica substrates for use as electrodeposition templates. Using electrochemistry to orient a surfactant, it is possible to produce silica films with strongly aligned pores. To make templates for the electrodeposition of semiconductor nanowire devices, we would like to implement variations in the pore sizes available through this route. This will involve synthetic chemistry to produce new surfactant molecules and electrochemistry for the silica deposition, combined with detailed analysis of the resultant films.