Highly Ordered Titanium Dioxide Nanostructures via a Simple One-Step Vapor-Inclusion Method in Block Copolymer Films

Nanostructured crystalline titanium dioxide (TiO2) finds applications in numerous fields such as photocatalysis or photovoltaics, where its physical and chemical properties depend on its shape and crystallinity. We report a simple method of fabricating TiO2 nanowires by selective area deposition of titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) and water in a chemical vapor deposition-based approach at low temperature by utilizing a polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) self-assembled block copolymer thin film as a template. Parameters such as exposure time to TTIP (minutes to hours), working temperature (similar to 18 to 40 degrees C), and relative humidity (20 to 70%) were systemically investigated through grazing incidence small-angle scattering, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and optimized for fabrication of TiO2 nanostructures. The resulting processing conditions yielded titanium dioxide nanowires with a diameter of 24 nm. An extra calcination step (500 degrees C) was introduced to burn off the remaining organic matrix and introduce phase change from amorphous to anatase in TiO2 nanowires without any loss in order.