Structure and glass transition of amorphous materials composed of titanium-oxo oligomers chemically modified with benzoylacetone.

Titanium--butoxide was hydrolyzed in the presence of benzoylacetone, and the resulting solution was concentrated and dried at 120 or 140 °C to obtain transparent amorphous materials. High-energy X-ray diffraction measurement was conducted at the SPring-8 facility, and the reduced pair distribution function, () was calculated by Fourier transform of the total structure factor, (). The () value suggested that the materials are composed of TiO octahedra linked by corner- and edge-sharing.

Comparison of In-Plane Stress Development in Sol-Gel- and Nanoparticle-Derived Mesoporous Metal Oxide Thin Films.

By using an evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) process, mesoporous metal oxide thin films are prepared via molecular precursors undergoing a sol-gel transition or by using nanoparticle dispersions as the starting materials. Both methods are employed together with PIB--PEO as the structure-directing agent to produce porous TiO and ZrO thin films with spherical mesopores of around 14 nm in diameter. These nanoparticle- and sol-gel-derived films were investigated in terms of the intrinsic in-plane stress development during the heat treatment up to 500 °C to evaluate the impact of solvent evaporation, template decomposition and crystallization on the mechanical state of the film.

In-plane stress development in mesoporous thin films.

Ordered mesoporous thin films of TiO2 and CexZr1-xO2 (x = 0, 0.5, 1) were prepared via an evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) process and subsequently investigated in terms of the developing intrinsic and residual in-plane stress. These mechanical properties were determined by the curvature method, which is based on the determination of the deflection of light due to concave or convex bending of the films on a substrate.

Evaporation-Driven Deposition of ITO Thin Films from Aqueous Solutions with Low-Speed Dip-Coating Technique.

We suggest a novel wet coating process for preparing indium tin oxide (ITO) films from simple solutions containing only metal salts and water via evaporation-driven film deposition during low-speed dip coating. Homogeneous ITO precursor films were deposited on silica glass substrates from the aqueous solutions containing In(NO)·3HO and SnCl·5HO by dip coating at substrate withdrawal speeds of 0.20-0.

Transferability and Adhesion of Sol-Gel-Derived Crystalline TiO Thin Films to Different Types of Plastic Substrates.

Anatase thin films were prepared on various plastic substrates by our recently developed sol-gel transfer technique. Polycarbonate (PC), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyether ether ketone (PEEK), and polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) were employed as plastic substrates. A Si(100) substrate was first coated with a polyimide (PI)/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) mixture layer, and an alkoxide-derived titania gel film was deposited on it by spin-coating.