Homogeneous Integration of Polyoxometalates and Titania into Crumpled Layers.

The crumpling and buckling in nanosheets are anticipated to provide new characteristics that could not be observed in ideal flat layers. However, the rigid lattice structure of inorganic metal oxides limits their assembly into well-defined crumpled layers. Here, this study demonstrates that at the sub-nm scale, polyoxometalates (POMs) clusters having well-defined structures can intercede during the nucleation process of titania and co-assemble with nuclei to form uniform, large-sized crumpled binary 2D layers with a thickness of 2 nm.