Issue 5, 2013

Highly ordered TiO2nanostructures by sequential vapour infiltration of block copolymer micellar films in an atomic layer deposition reactor

Abstract

Sequential vapour infiltration operated in an atomic layer deposition (ALD) reactor was used to controllably deliver precursors of TiO2 into the cores of micellar films of the amphiphilic block copolymer, poly(styrene-block-4-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP). Vaporized precursors diffused through the PS corona and were exclusively enriched into the P4VP cores. Arrays of hexagonally arranged TiO2 nanoparticles were produced by burning off the polymeric components after UV-crosslinking the TiO2-incorporated micellar films. The size of the TiO2 particles was tunable simply by repeating the cycle numbers, and the interparticle distances were dictated by the distances between neighboring micelles of the original micellar films and could be changed by using block copolymers with different molecular weights. Compared to the extensively used solution impregnation method, the sequential vapour infiltration strategy was distinct in terms of the simplicity accompanying the “dry” process and precise control in particle sizes. More importantly, growth of TiO2 particles inside micellar cores was not limited by the available pyridyl groups as TiO2 continued to grow on preformed TiO2 particles after the pyridyl groups were consumed. Consequently, the particle sizes could be tuned in a much broader range compared to the solution impregnation method in which the particle size was limited by the saturation of impregnated precursors bound to the pyridyl groups. Furthermore, we demonstrated the versatility of this sequential vapour infiltration strategy in producing nanostructures with different morphologies and chemical compositions.

Graphical abstract: Highly ordered TiO2 nanostructures by sequential vapour infiltration of block copolymer micellar films in an atomic layer deposition reactor

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Sep 2012
Accepted
08 Nov 2012
First published
09 Nov 2012

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2013,1, 1029-1036

Highly ordered TiO2 nanostructures by sequential vapour infiltration of block copolymer micellar films in an atomic layer deposition reactor

J. Yin, Q. Xu, Z. Wang, X. Yao and Y. Wang, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2013, 1, 1029 DOI: 10.1039/C2TC00306F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements