Surface-mediated growth of transparent, oriented, and well-defined nanocrystalline anatase titania films.

A new, surface-mediated method to grow transparent, oriented, and well-defined nanocrystalline anatase TiO2 films has been developed. The morphology of crystals is tunable from octahedral pyramids to truncate octahedral pyramids. These novel nanocrystalline films could have implications not only for practical applications but also for understanding the structure and orientation dependent properties of the important anatase material.

Effect of humidity treatments on porosity and mechanical integrity of mesoporous silica films.

The beneficial effects humidity treatments have on molecularly templated mesoporous silica films with respect to elastic modulus, with minimal detrimental effects on porosity and dielectric constant, were identified.