Paper NS-TuP3
Low-energy Electron Beam Calcination to Obtain Well-ordered Mesopores in Titanium dioxide Film

Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 6:30 pm, Room Hall D

Mesoporous materials fabricated using organic surfactant molecules or block copolymers as structural directing agents has attracted much attention not only catalysts and adsorbents, but also insulating layers, chemical and gas sensors, and optical and electrical devices. In order to fabricate microdevices based on such well-ordered mesoporous materials, the control of morphologies and geometries in nano ~ micrometer scale is one of the key technologies for practical uses. In this study, we report on a facile and rapid template removal method at low temperature to obtain mesoporous titania film without cracking. Our approach demonstrated here, named “low-energy electron beam (LEEB) calcination,” is a novel calcination technique based on the decomposition and oxidation of organic fractions such as surfactants or block copolymers by LEEB irradiation under vacuum. Organic templates can rapidly be eliminated from precursor mesocomposite film within 30 min without distorting periodic mesostructure, resulting in the successful conversion to crack-free ordered mesoporous titania film. Our best rate by LEEB calcination is ~14 times faster than the result obtained by photocalcination using 172 nm vacuum UV light.