Titre

Ordered vertically oriented porous inorganic films produced through solution processing

Revendications

A method for producing an inorganic film having pores oriented normal to the plane of a surface of the film, comprising;
forming a pattern of components on the film surface of contrasting hydrophobicity, and/or hydrophilicity;

growing an inorganic/organic composite on the patterned surface whereby the composite can conform to the surface pattern to form vertically oriented pore structures; and

treating the composite to remove the organic part of the composite to form a pattern of pores corresponding in location to said pattern of components.
The method of claim 1 in which the components are any polymer or surfactant templated hexagonal material grown on any polymer or surfactant templated cubic material.
The method of claim in 1 which the components are any polymer or surfactant templated hexagonal material grown on any hexagonal surface pattern produced through self-organization.
The method of claim 1 in which the surface pattern is made up of hydrophobic patches on a hydrophilic film surface.
The method of claim 1 in which the surface pattern is made up of hydrophilic patches on a hydrophobic film surface.
The method of claim 1 in which the inorganic/organic composite is formed by self-assembly.
The method of claim 1 in which the components are formed by crosslinking, then calcining, the self-assembled components.
The method of claim 1 in which the vertically oriented pore structures are hexagonally arranged, the surface pattern on the film being hexagonal with a close lattice match to the composite.
The method of claim 8 in which the surface pattern is formed from a cubic self-assembled material.
The method of claim 1 in which the film surface is flat.
The method of claim 1 in which the components are of silica on a titania surface.
The method of claim 1 in which the components are of titania on a titania surface
A method for producing an inorganic film having hexagonally arranged pores vertically oriented normal to the plane of a surface of the film, comprising;
forming a pattern of components from a cubic self-assembled material on the film surface, the pattern having contrasting hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity, and crosslinking the components to form a flat surface;

growing an inorganic/organic composite by self-assembly on the patterned surface whereby the composite can conform to the surface pattern to form the vertically oriented pore structures, the surface pattern on the film having a close lattice match to the composite; and

selectively removing one component of the composite to form a pattern of pores corresponding in location to said pattern of components.
The method of claim 13 in which the components are hexagonally arranged on the film surface.
An inorganic film having pores that are uniformly vertically oriented normal to the plane of a flat surface of the film obtained by growing an inorganic/organic composite by self-assembly on a lattice matched pattern of components that are formed by self-assembly, crosslinking and calcining on the film surface of contrasting hydrophobicity, and/or hydrophilicity and calcining the composite to form a pattern of pores corresponding in location to the pattern of components.
The film of claim 15 in which the vertically oriented pore structures are hexagonally arranged.
The film of claim 15 in which the cubic and hexagonal phases separate spontaneously from a single film during self-assembly.

Abrégé

Porous films with straight pores oriented normal to the plane of the films are produced through solution processing techniques. The production takes advantage of inorganic-surfactant or inorganic-polymer co-assembly and a patterned substrate. The patterned substrate, which is also produced via solution phase self-assembly, forces vertical orientation in a hexagonal cylinder system with no practical limits in substrate size or type. This provides a route to vertically oriented inorganic pores with a pitch ranging from 3 nm to over 15 nm and pore sizes ranging from 2 nm to over 12 nm. The size is tuned by choice the choice of organic templating agents and the deposition conditions. The pores can be produced with or without a capping layer which can be used to seal the nanopores.

Brevets déposés connexes

Provisional application No. 60/688,615, filed on Jun. 8, 2005.

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