Article abstract
Nature Materials 6, 602 - 608 (2007)
Published online: 24 June 2007 | doi:10.1038/nmat1951
Subject Categories: Porous materials | Surface and thin films
Electrochemically assisted self-assembly of mesoporous silica thin films
A. Walcarius1, E. Sibottier1, M. Etienne1 & J. Ghanbaja2
Abstract
Supported mesostructured thin films are of major importance for applications in optical, electrochemical and sensing devices. However, good performance is restricted to mesostructured phases ensuring good accessibility from the film surface, which would be straightforward with cylindrical pores oriented normal to the underlying support, but this remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate that electrochemistry is likely to induce self-assembly of surfactant-templated (organo)silica thin films on various conducting supports, homogeneously over wide areas. The method involves the application of a suitable cathodic potential to an electrode immersed in a surfactant-containing hydrolysed sol solution to generate the hydroxyl ions that are necessary to catalyse polycondensation of the precursors and self-assembly of hexagonally packed one-dimensional channels that grow perpendicularly to the electrode surface. The method is compatible with controlled and localized deposition on heterogeneous supports, opening the way to electrochemically driven nanolithography for designing complex patterns of widely accessible mesostructured materials.
- Laboratoire de Chimie Physique et Microbiologie pour l'Environnement, URM 7564, CNRS– Nancy University, 405, rue de Vandoeuvre, F-54600 Villers-lès-Nancy, France
- Service commun de microscopie électronique, Faculté des Sciences, Nancy University, BP 239, F-54506 Vandoeuvre Cedex, France
Correspondence to: A. Walcarius1 e-mail: walcarius@lcpme.cnrs-nancy.fr
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
NEWS AND VIEWS
Materials science Germanium takes holey ordersNature News and Views (29 Jun 2006)
Melting, slipping and shining materialsNature Materials Research News (01 Aug 2005)
RESEARCH
Pores in thin films tend to lie in the plane of the substrate, which makes it impractical for applications where diffusion into the pores is necessary. Nanometre-scale epitaxy on a patterned substrate is now used to form vertically oriented pores in honeycomb-structured films. Pores in thin films tend to lie in the plane of the substrate, which makes it impractical for applications where diffusion into the pores is necessary. Nanometre-scale epitaxy on a patterned substrate is now used to form vertically oriented pores in honeycomb-structured films.Nature Materials Letter (01 Sep 2008)
Design and synthesis of self-ordered mesoporous nanocomposite through controlled in-situ crystallizationNature Materials Article (01 Jan 2004)
See all 62 matches for Research
