Nanostructured Silica-Based Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Materials-Evidence for Self-Organization of a Xerogel Prepared by Sol-Gel Polymerization.
A hydrolytic polycondensation reaction of a rigid, rodlike nonmesomorphous precursor leads to an isotropic sol and then an anisotropic birefringent xerogel (see scheme). Optical and X-ray structural analyses demonstrate a short-range order and the possibility of a crystalline order.
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