Controlling Wall Thickness of Silica Nanotubes within 4-nm Precision

A tubular template self-assembled from secondary ammonium hydrochloride of a peptidic lipid was used for sol-gel transcription of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS). Very mild catalytic function of the terminal group enabled us to control the wall thickness of the resultant silica nanotubes within 4-nm precision, depending on the amount of TEOS added.