Metal oxide mesostructures

A novel synthesis strategy leading to the formation of stable transition-metal-oxide mesostructures... 

Another way to complete condensation of an inorganic matrix is a treatment of the deposited films at different humidity in combination with slightly elevated temperatures. This approach, called delayed humidity treatment (DHT), enables controlled mesoorganization and condensation of the metal oxides (e.g., Sn02) with a low condensation rate.53,54 The thermal stability of such mesostructures is, however, low. So, in most cases, just semicrystalline metal oxide films can be obtained. 

Brezesinski, T. Smarsly, B. Iimura, K. Grosso, D. Boissiere, C. Amenitsch, H. Antonietti, M. Sanchez, C. 2005. Self-assembly and crystallization behavior of mesoporous, crystalline Hf02 thin films A model system for the generation of mesostructured transition-metal oxides. Small 1 889-898. 

Ordered mesoporous materials of compositions other than silica or silica-alumina are also accessible. Employing the micelle templating route, several oxidic mesostructures have been made. Unfortunately, the pores of many such materials collapse upon template removal by calcination. The oxides in the pore walls are often not very well condensed or suffer from reciystallization of the oxides. In some cases, even changes of the oxidation state of the metals may play a role. Stabilization of the pore walls in post-synthesis results in a material that is rather stable toward calcination. By post-synthetic treatment with phosphoric acid, stable alumina, titania, and zirconia mesophases were obtained (see [27] and references therein). The phosphoric acid results in further condensation of the pore walls and the materials can be calcined with preservation of the pore system. Not only mesoporous oxidic materials but also phosphates, sulfides, and selenides can be obtained by surfactant templating. These materials have pore systems similar to OMS materials. 

Since the first synthesis of mesoporous materials MCM-41 at Mobile Coporation,1 most work carried out in this area has focused on the preparation, characterization and applications of silica-based compounds. Recently, the synthesis of metal oxide-based mesostructured materials has attracted research attention due to their catalytic, electric, magnetic and optical properties.2 5 Although metal sulfides have found widespread applications as semiconductors, electro-optical materials and catalysts, to just name a few, only a few attempts have been reported on the synthesis of metal sulfide-based mesostructured materials. Thus far, mesostructured tin sulfides have proven to be most synthetically accessible in aqueous solution at ambient temperatures.6-7 Physical property studies showed that such materials may have potential to be used as semiconducting liquid crystals in electro-optical displays and chemical sensing applications. In addition, mesostructured thiogermanates8-10 and zinc sulfide with textured mesoporosity after surfactant removal11 have been prepared under hydrothermal conditions. 

Many of the same ionic surfactants used for the assembly of mesostructured molecular sieve catalysts [1-4] and related bulk phases [5] can be intercalated in a variety of layered host structures [6]. We have recently demonstrated that some of these mesostructure - forming surfactants retain their structure directing properties when intercalated in the galleries of smectite clays. In a manner quite analogous to bulk mesostructure formation, the intercalated surfactants direct the assembly of an open framework metal oxide (silica) structure within the constrained gallery regions of the layered host (7). The resulting porous intercalates are referred to as porous clay heterostructures (PCH). 

SEM and TEM investigations of macroporous and toroidal mesostructured transition metal oxides... 

In addition to mesostructured metal oxide molecular sieves prepared through supramolecular assembly pathways, clays, carbon molecular sieves, porous polymers, sol-gel and imprinted materials, as well as self-assembled organic and other zeolite-like materials, have captured the attention of materials researchers around the globe. Clays, zeolites and sol-gel materials are still very popular because of their extensive and expanding applications in catalysis and separation science. Novel carbons and polymers of ordered porous structures have been synthesized. There are almost unlimited opportunities in the synthesis of new organic materials of desired structural and surface properties via self-assembly or imprinting procedures. 

In order to elucidate the importance of the role of in situ formed carbon in the formation of well-organized, highly crystalline mesoporous transition metal oxides, as-synthesized Ti02 was directly calcined under air to 700°C while keeping all other conditions the same as for the CASH method. As expected, the BET surface area of the resulting material was only 0.2 m2 g-1 and no porous structure could be detected by TEM imaging. This implies that the mesostructure completely collapsed. The crystallite size of this sample, heat treated to 700°C in air is 31.5 nm (calculated... 

Non-aqueous synthetic methods have recently been used to assemble mesoporous transition metal oxides and sulfides. This approach may afford greater control over the condensation-polymerization chemistry of precursor species and lead to enhanced surface area materials and well ordered structures [38, 39], For the first time, a rational synthesis of mesostructured metal germanium sulfides from the co-assembly of adamantanoid [Ge4S ()]4 cluster precursors was reported [38], Formamide was used as a solvent to co-assemble surfactant and adamantanoid clusters, while M2+/1+ transition metal ions were used to link the clusters (see Fig. 2.2). This produced exceptionally well-ordered mesostructured metal germanium sulfide materials, which could find application in detoxification of heavy metals, sensing of sulfurous vapors and the formation of semiconductor quantum anti-dot devices. 

Recently reported meso- and macroscale self-assembly approaches conducted, respectively, in the presence of surfactant mesophases [134-136] and colloidal sphere arrays [137] are highly promising for the molecular engineering of novel catalytic mixed metal oxides. These novel methods offer the possibility to control surface and bulk chemistry (e.g. the V oxidation state and P/V ratios), wall nature (i.e. amorphous or nanocrystalline), morphology, pore structures and surface areas of mixed metal oxides. Furthermore, these novel catalysts represent well-defined model systems that are expected to lead to new insights into the nature of the active and selective surface sites and the mechanism of n-butane oxidation. In this section, we describe several promising synthesis approaches to VPO catalysts, such as the self-assembly of mesostructured VPO phases, the synthesis of macroporous VPO phases, intercalation and pillaring of layered VPO phases and other methods. 

As shown in Table 4 most of the metal oxides have a strong tendency to form lamellar structures, except Sb, W, Pb. The formation pathway of these materials depends on the charge of the surfactant and that of the inorganic ion involved in the synthesis. Different mesostructured Sb and W oxides were synthesized at room temperature by controlling the pH of the system. Regardless of their structures, all the resulting materials collapsed upon calcination. 

Compared with metal oxides, less attention has been paid to the synthesis of mesostructured metal sulfides [61,205]. The only systematic work was reported by Anderson and Newcomer [205]. The liquid-crystal templating approach was applied to metal sulfides, such as Mo, W, Co, Fe, Zn, Ga, Sn and Sb sulfides. All of the products were lamellar and consisted of bilayers or interdigitated layers of surfactant molecules sandwiched between metal sulfide layers. 

Ordered mesoporous silica seems to be an ideal hard template, which can be used as a mold for other mesostructures with various compositions, such as ordered mesoporous carbon and metal oxides. Mesoporous silicas with various different structures are available, and silica is relatively easily dissolved in HF or NaOH. Alternatively, mesoporous carbons with a solid skeleton structure are also suitable choices as hard templates due to their excellent structural stability on thermal or hydrothermal and chemical treatment. A pronounced advantage of carbon is the fact that it is much easier to remove than silica by simple combustion. The nanocasting synthesis of mesoporous carbon by using mesoporous silica as template will be discussed in detail in the section on mesoporous carbon. In many cases, silica is unsuitable for synthesizing framework compositions other than carbon, since the leaching of the silica typically affects the material which is filled into the silica pore system. 

Well ordered mesoporous silicate films were prepared in supercritical carbon dioxide.[218] In the synthesis in aqueous or alcoholic solution, film morphology of preorganized surfactants on substrate cannot be fully prescribed before silica-framework formation, because structure evolution is coincident with precursor condensation. The rapid and efficient preparation of mesostructured metal oxides by the in situ condensation of metal oxides within preformed nonionic surfactants can be done in supercritical CCU- The synthesis procedure is as follows. A copolymer template is prepared by spin-coating from a solution containing a suitable acid catalyst. Upon drying and annealing to induce microphase separation and enhance order, the acid partitions into the hydrophilic domain of the template. The template is then exposed to a solution of metal alkoxide in humidified supercritical C02. The precursor diffuses into the template and condenses selectively within the acidic hydrophilic domain of the copolymer to form the incipient metal oxide network. The templates did not go into the C02 phase because their solubility is very low. The alcohol by-product of alkoxide condensation is extracted rapidly from the film into the C02 phase, which promotes rapid and extensive network condensation. Because the template and the metal oxide network form in discrete steps, it is possible to pattern the template via lithography or to orient the copolymer domains before the formation of the metal oxide network. 

Silica is the most extensively studied system among the self-assembled materials. Commonly used precursors in the synthesis of silica are tetraalkyl orthosilicates (Si(OR)4). However, in nonsilica systems, including transition metal oxides or chalcogenides, the precursors are typically very reactive, and hence some means must be devised to control the reactivity of these precursors to avoid outright precipitation of solids having no mesostructure. The ways to control the reactivity of... 

---