High thermal stability thick wall mesoporous titania thin films

Mesoporous TiO₂ thin films were prepared by using tetrabutyl titanate as the inorganic precursor and triblock copolymer (Pluronic F127) as the structure directing agent. The obtained mesostructured TiO₂ thin film exhibits a high thermal stability, which can sustain 600 °C thermal treatment. The small angle XRD and wide angle XRD patterns indicate that the samples have mesoporous channel and are composed of anatase. The corresponding TEM images show that the homogeneous mesostructure and very thick pore walls (about 9-13 nm) are formed in the obtained thin films, which could be responsible for the high thermal stability of the framework. In addition, the samples have narrow pore diameter distribution and a mean pore size of 7.4 nm.