Silica Scaffold with Shifted "Plumber's Nightmare" Networks and their Interconversion into Diamond Networks

Bicontinuous structures with hyperbolic surfaces have been found in a variety of natural and synthetic systems. Herein, we present the synthesis and structural study of the shifted double-primitive networks, which is known as the rare "plumber's nightmare", and its interconversion into diamond networks. The scaffold was prepared by self-assembly of an amphiphilic triblock terpolymer and silica precursors. Electron crystallography indicates that the structure consists of two sets of hollow primitive networks shifted along 0.75b and 0.25c axes (2pcu(38 63), space group Cmcm). The "side-by-side" epitaxial relationship of the primitive and diamond networks with unit cell ratio of about 1.30 has been directly observed with the intermediate surface related to the rPD family. These results bring new insights to previous theoretical studies.