title: Tailoring the morphology of mesoporous titania thin films through biotemplating with nanocrystalline cellulose.
abstract: The tunable porosity of titania thin films is a key factor for successful applications in photovoltaics, sensing, and photocatalysis. Here, we report on nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) as a novel shape-persistent templating agent enabling the straightforward synthesis of mesoporous titania thin films. The obtained structures are highly porous anatase morphologies having well-defined, narrow pore size distributions. By varying the titania-to-template ratio, it is possible to tune the surface area, pore size, pore anisotropy, and dimensions of titania crystallites in the films. Moreover, a post-treatment at high humidity and subsequent slow template removal can be used to achieve pore widening; this treatment is also beneficial for the multilayer deposition of thick films. The resulting homogeneous transparent films can be directly spin- or dip- coated on glass, silicon, and transparent conducting oxide (TCO) substrates. The mesoporous titania films show very high activity in the photocatalytic NO conversion and in the degradation of 4-chlorophenol. Furthermore, the films can be successfully applied as anodes in dye-sensitized solar cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Center for NanoScience (CeNS), University of Munich (LMU) , Butenandtstrasse 5-13 (E), 81377 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Alesja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ivanova
authors.forename: Dina
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fattakhova-Rohlfing
authors.forename: Bugra Eymer
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Kayaalp
authors.forename: Jiri
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rathouský
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bein
mesh_terms: D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry*; D002733:Chlorophenols / Q000737:chemistry; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000737:chemistry; D016062:Porosity; D012993:Solar Energy; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D002733:Chlorophenols; C009495:titanium dioxide; D009569:Nitric Oxide; C029107:4-chlorophenol; D002482:Cellulose; D014025:Titanium