Highly Crystalline Cubic Mesoporous TiO2 with 10-nm Pore Diameter Made with a New Block Copolymer Template

A strategy is shown to fabricate highly organized mesoporous anatase films exhibiting favorable properties for photocatalysis and photovoltaic applications by the hydrolysis/condensation of TiCl4 in the presence of PHB-PEO block copolymer templates. Dipcoating for evaporation-induced-self-assembly followed by a straight thermal treatment was employed. The evaporation/structuration process and the thermal treatment were mechanistically followed by in situ GISAXS/WAXS measurements, and the final product was carefully analyzed by spectroscopic ellipsometry and transmission electron microscopy to reveal the consequences of crystallization onto the micro-, the meso-, and the macroscale