Efficient Access to Functionalized Mesoporous Materials with Bicontinuous Morphologies via a Kinetic Approach

In this work, we report a versatile strategy enabling simultaneous regulation of both morphology and pore-surface chemistry in mesoporous materials. By introducing diols as ‘noncovalent cross-linking agents’, microphase separation of polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinylpyridine)-b-polylactide triblock terpolymers can be tuned, inducing the formation of a metastable phase with disordered bicontinuous morphology. After selective etching to remove the polylactide end-block, mesoporous structures are obtained with poly(4-vinylpyridine) midblocks retained on the inner pore walls. We demonstrate that the resulting mesoporous materials exhibit efficient adsorption performance for both organic dyes and metal ions, leveraging the functional P4VP segments and interconnected bicontinuous channels. This work offers a facile approach to fabricating functionalized mesoporous materials and provides new mechanistic insights into the design of nanostructured materials with tailored morphology and surface chemistry.