Periodically ordered nanoscale islands and mesoporous films composed of nanocrystalline multimetallic oxides.
Innovative strategies to produce well-defined nanoparticles and other nanostructures such as nanofibres, quantum wells and mesoporous materials have revitalized materials science for the potential benefit to society. Here, we report a controlled process, involving soft-chemistry-based deposition, template-assisted mesostructured growth, and tuned annealing conditions that allows the preparation of ordered mesoporous crystalline networks and mesostructured nano-island single layers, composed of multicationic metal oxides having perovskite, tetragonal or ilmenite structures. This strategy to obtain meso-organized multi-metal-oxide nanocrystalline films (M(3)NF) bridges the gap between conventional mesoporous materials and the remarkable properties of crystalline ternary or quaternary metallic oxides. Nanocrystalline mesoporous films with controlled wall thickness (10-20 nm) of dielectric SrTiO(3), photoactive MgTa(2)O(6) or ferromagnetic semi-conducting Co(x)Ti(1-x)O(2-x) were prepared by evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) using a specially designed non-ionic block-copolymer template. A tuned thermal treatment of the mesoporous films permits the transfer of the wall structure into nanocrystallites, with all tectonic units being tightly incorporated into mechanically stable ordered tri- or bidimensional nanocrystalline networks. This methodology should allow multifunctionalization, miniaturization and integration during development of devices such as smart sensors and actuators, better-performing photocatalysts, and fast electrochromic devices. On the other hand, organized arrays of dispersed ferromagnetic or ferroelectric nanoparticles are promising materials for spintronics and for cheap, non-volatile 'flash' memories.
Grosso
David
D
Chimie de la Matière Condensée, UMR UPMC-CNRS 7574, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris 05, France.
Boissière
Cédric
C
Smarsly
Bernd
B
Brezesinski
Torsten
T
Pinna
Nicola
N
Albouy
Pierre A
PA
Amenitsch
Heinz
H
Antonietti
Markus
M
Sanchez
Clément
C
D003460:Crystallization; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D036103:Nanotechnology; D010087:Oxides / Q000737:chemistry*
D010087:Oxides