Biomimetic Pathways for Assembling Inorganic Thin Films
Living organisms construct various forms of laminated nanocomposites through directed nucleation and growth of inorganics at self-assembled organic templates at temperatures below 100&deg;C and in aqueous solutions. Recent research has focused on the use of functionalized organic surfaces to form continuous thin films of single-phase ceramics. Continuous thin films of mesostructured silicates have also been formed on hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces through a two-step mechanism. First, under acidic conditions, surfactant micellar structures are self-assembled at the solid/liquid interface, and second, inorganic precursors condense to form an inorganic-organic nanocomposite. Epitaxial coordination of adsorbed surfactant tubules is observed on mica and graphite substrates, whereas a random arrangement is observed on amorphous silica. The ability to process ceramic-organic nanocomposite films by these methods provides new technological opportunities.
Aksay
IA
The authors are at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-5263, USA. I. A. Aksay, M. Trau, and I. Honma are in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Princeton Materials Institute; S. Manne and N. Yao are in the Princeton Materials Institute; and L. Zhou, P. Fenter, P. M. Eisenberger, and S. M. Gruner are in the Department of Physics and the Princeton Materials Institute.
Trau
M
Manne
S
Honma
I
Yao
N
Zhou
L
Fenter
P
Eisenberger
PM
Gruner
SM