Abstract
In this thesis, we studied the alcohol effect in a dilute solution of cationic and nonionic surfactant. Six different alcohols including Ethanol, 1-Propanol, 2-Propanol, 1-Butanol, 2-Butanol and tert-Butanol were applied for this study. The alcohol-induced structural transition was observed, and could be rationalized by the penetration of alcohol molecules into the mixed micelles of CTAB and C12EO4, increasing the packing parameter g. Among the study of alcohol effect, the MCM-48 with anisotropic morphology, which has not been reported ever, was obtained by adding 2-Propanol. The MCM-48 with anisotropic morphology was characterized to have a preferential growth along [111] direction of Ia3d mesophase. A formation mechanism was proposed based on the ex-situ small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and other analyses. We further performed the synthesis of core-shell Au nanorod@Ia3d structured silica via a seeded growth route in the presence of 2-Propanol.