Surfactant-mediated generation of iso-oriented dense and mesoporous crystalline metal-oxide layers

Ordered mesoporous and dense films of crystallographically oriented metal oxides (e.g. MoO3, see figure and also cover) are obtained by evaporation-induced self-assembly followed by heating. This surfactant-directed facile methodology works for oxides with anisotropic unit cells, based on the interaction with surfactants during nucleation (soft epitaxy).