Making nanometer thick silica glass scaffolds: an experimental approach to learn about size effects in glasses

A convenient method for the synthesis of very well defined porous silica glasses using ionic liquids as templates is presented. Depending on template concentration, these systems form a homologous series of mesoporous systems with diverse shapes, with the pores having constant thickness of about 2.4 nm. These nanostructures allow the analysis of the two-dimensional behavior of glasses, either from a liquid to be embedded in the pore or of the silica glass forming the wall. For the walls, the third reduced dimension can be varied in a systematic fashion. This approach is exemplified by analyzing the static glass structure of 2D-silica by WAXS.