High-fraction brookite films from amorphous precursors
Name
s41598-017-15364-y.pdf
Size
3.61 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9169982e8899b42f599cba3b4fb7177c
Author(s)
Haggerty, James E. S.
Schelhas, Laura T.
Mangum, John S.
Garten, Lauren M.
Sun, Wenhao
Stone, Kevin H.
Perkins, John D.
Toney, Michael F.
Ceder, Gerbrand
Ginley, David S.
Date Issued
November 2017
Journal
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Haggerty, James E. S. et al. “High-Fraction Brookite Films from Amorphous Precursors.” Scientific Reports 7, 1 (November 2017): 15232 © 2017 The Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Structure-specific synthesis processes are of key importance to the growth of polymorphic functional compounds such as TiO₂, where material properties strongly depend on structure as well as chemistry. The robust growth of the brookite polymorph of TiO₂, a promising photocatalyst, has been difficult in both powder and thin-film forms due to the disparity of reported synthesis techniques, their highly specific nature, and lack of mechanistic understanding. In this work, we report the growth of high-fraction (~95%) brookite thin films prepared by annealing amorphous titania precursor films deposited by pulsed laser deposition. We characterize the crystallization process, eliminating the previously suggested roles of substrate templating and Na helper ions in driving brookite formation. Instead, we link phase selection directly to film thickness, offering a novel, generalizable route to brookite growth that does not rely on the presence of extraneous elements or particular lattice-matched substrates. In addition to providing a new synthesis route to brookite thin films, our results take a step towards resolving the problem of phase selection in TiO₂ growth, contributing to the further development of this promising functional material.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/S41598-017-15364-Y
