Controlling the nanoscale morphology of porous, semiconducting metal oxides is of great interest in view of the great potential of these versatile materials in photovoltaics and other applications.We will discuss several highly flexible strategies for the formation of various nano-morphologies, which are primarily based on fusing pre-formed ultrasmall oxide nanocrystals in the presence of appropriate porogens. For example, in a 'brick and mortar' approach, titania nanoparticles are assembled in the presence of surfactant-templated sol-gel titania acting as a structure-directing matrix. This approach also allows us to build various hierarchical structures such as titania inverse opals penetrated by titania mesopores. The resulting porous networks were investigated in detail to monitor seeding effects, crystal growth and mesostructure development during calcination, respectively. These systems were employed as efficient active layers in photovoltaic cells, for ultrafast lithium intercalation in the extremely small crystalline domains, and for photocatalytic reactions, respectively.

Oxide semiconductor nano-morphologies for energy conversion

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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