Controlling size of nanopores with UV light

from the dilated-to-meet-you dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "From Eureka Alert: Key to the pore size changes are photoacid molecules that self-assemble and uniformly incorporate into a periodic nanostructure. A light shone on these molecules breaks them apart to form an acid that causes silica to solidify locally. The amount of solidification, which necessarily shrinks pore sizes to create the denser material, is proportional to the amount of light shone on the membrane." The paper itself is in Science (registration required).