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Electrochemically assisted self-assembly of mesoporous silica thin films

Nature Materials volume 6, pages 602–608 (2007)Cite this article

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.

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Figure 1: TEM images of the electrodeposited surfactant-templated mesoporous silica films.
Figure 2: TEM images of a surfactant-templated mesoporous silica film electrodeposited on ITO.
Figure 3: Electrochemical monitoring of the permeability properties of the mesostructured films.
Figure 4: In situ EQCM characterization of the electrodeposition process and SEM examination of the resulting films.
Figure 5: Effect of deposition time on the film thickness.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the French National Research Agency (project No. NT05-3_41602 ‘mesoporelect’). We are also grateful to A. Kohler and S. Borensztajn for the SEM and FE-SEM experiments, respectively, and to C. Effoua for help with some of the experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Chimie Physique et Microbiologie pour l’Environnement, URM 7564, CNRS– Nancy University, 405, rue de Vandoeuvre, F-54600 Villers-lès-Nancy, France

    A. Walcarius, E. Sibottier & M. Etienne

  2. Service commun de microscopie électronique, Faculté des Sciences, Nancy University, BP 239, F-54506 Vandoeuvre Cedex, France

    J. Ghanbaja

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  1. A. Walcarius
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Contributions

A.W. was responsible for the project planning and data analysis, E.S. mainly contributed to the experimental work, M.E. carried out both experimental work and data analysis and J.G. obtained the TEM micrographs.

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Correspondence to A. Walcarius.

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Walcarius, A., Sibottier, E., Etienne, M. et al. Electrochemically assisted self-assembly of mesoporous silica thin films. Nature Mater 6, 602–608 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1951

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