Hierarchical trimodal

Figure 32.5 Proposed microemulsion mechanism for the formation of hierarchical trimodal porous zeolites [63].

Complex templates combine soft and hard template techniques. This methodology is used for synthesizing hierarchically bimodal and trimodal meso-macroporous materials with interconnected pore channels combining a surfactant template with a colloidal crystal template (Yuan and Su, 2004). 

Taubert A, Li Z (2007) Inorganic materials from ionic liquids. Dalton Trans p 723 Kuang DB, Brezesinski T, Smarsly B (2004) Hierarchical porous silica materials with a trimodal pore system using surfactant templates. J Am Chem Soc 126 10534 Wu XF, Tian YJ, Cui YB, Wei LQ, Wang Q, Chen YF (2007) Raspberry-like silica hollow spheres hierarchical structures by dual latex-surfactant templating route. J Phys Chem C 111 9704... 

We cannot judge at this point whether the importance of small mesoporosity for charge transport is really general or specific to the investigated film, but the authors have clearly demonstrated that films with bimodal and trimodal pore-size distributions are useful for electrochemists, because such combinations may at times alter the obtained electrochemical response in unexpected ways. We anticipate that multimodal pore-size distribution film-modified electrodes and mem-branes (i.e., hierarchical networks) will become widespread in electrochemical sensing, catalysis, and energy storage applications. 

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