"Hairy tubes" : Mesoporous materials containing hollow self-organized cylinders with polymer brushes at the walls

In this chapter, a route to prepare “hairy tubes” is presented. Hydrogen-bonded supramolecules, based on PS-block-P4VP, self-organize into cylinders in a glassy rigid PS-matrix. Annealing the material and applying oscillatory shear flow increases the macroscopic order of the cylinders. Part of the supramolecular complex, i.e. PDP, can be conveniently washed out using methanol after the structure has been formed. Thus, empty tubes with P4VP “hairs” on the walls are obtained. This simple method allows tailoring the tubes and the transport properties, for example by tuning the block lengths or by chemical modification of the hairs.