A simple and versatile method to fully crystalline mesoporous transition metal oxides with large, uniform pores

PHYS 153

Mahendra Christopher Orilall, mco9@cornell.edu1, Jinwoo Lee1, Francis DiSalvo, fjd3@cornell.edu1, and Ulrich Wiesner, ubw1@cornell.edu2. (1) Department of Chemistry and Department of Materials Science and Engineering/ Wiesner Group, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, (2) Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, 329 Bard Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-1501
The direct synthesis of fully crystalline, well-ordered mesoporous metal oxides still constitutes a major challenge, even after a decade or so of research. During this time, various soft and hard templating approaches have been employed but they often result in poor structure control and usually suffer from multiple, tedious steps. For many applications including power generation and energy conversion, however, high crystallinity and controlled mesoporosity is a prerequisite. To this end here we will report on a simple and versatile approach to fully crystalline, well-ordered mesoporous transition metal oxides that overcomes previous limitations. It gives direct access to the desired materials in a “one-pot” approach by using block copolymers with a sp2 hybridized carbon containing hydrophobic block as structure directing agents which converts to a sturdy, amorphous carbon material under appropriate heating conditions. This in-situ carbon is sufficient to act as a rigid support keeping the pores of the oxides intact while crystallizing at temperatures as high as 1000 ºC. The carbon is then subsequently removed to leave the fully crystalline and well-ordered transition metal oxide.
 

Nanostructured Materials
1:20 PM-5:00 PM, Monday, April 7, 2008 Morial Convention Center -- Rm. 338/339, Oral

Division of Physical Chemistry

The 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008