Formation of mesopores in resorcinol-formaldehyde composite resin

A new nanostructured resorcinol-formaldehyde material has been synthesized by hydrothermal condensation of resorcinol and formaldehyde at 363 K under mild alkaline condition in the presence Of supramolecular assembly of cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as structure directing agent. The material has been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, N, sorption, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis and UV-vis spectroscopy. The X-ray and TEM image analyses reveal disordered wormhole-like mesostructure with pores of ca. 2.5 nm. These composite materials exhibit photoluminescence property at room temperature, which may be utilized for the fabrication of novel organic optical devices.