Swiss-cheese morphology

Figure 7.5 Two topologically distinct types of mesoporous gold sponge, each with 50 volume % gold, (a) Swiss-cheese morphology produced by de-alloying, (b) aggregated particle morphology produced by sintering of nanoparticles.

When iron catalysts are exposed to FT synthesis reaction environments, the catalysts first transform from hematite into magnetite. The transformation into magnetite is rapid and occurs pseudomorphically where the shape of the hematite crystals is retained including their swiss-cheese morphology. The transformation from magnetite to carbide is slow and is affected... 

One of the main objectives of using microemulsions as reaction media for polymerization is to utilize their microstructures as templates to produce polymers with similar characteristics. For example, polymerization of a large amount of hydrophobic monomers in the continuous phase of w/o microemulsions could lead to solid polymers containing the preexisting aqueous disperse phase in a swiss-cheese like formation. This would permit inclusion of materials in the disperse phase that would otherwise be insoluble in the polymer, e.g., colloidal particles of metals as catalysts. In the case of bicontinuous microemulsions, however, both hydrophobic and hydrophilic monomers can be incorporated. The morphology of the final product would then depend on the microemulsion composition and on the nature of the incorporated monomers. 

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