Atomic Layer Deposition for the Conformal Coating ofNanoporous Materials.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Nanomaterials Volume 2006, Article ID 64501, DOI 10.1155/JNM/2006/64501 Atomic Layer Deposition for the Conformal Coating of Nanoporous Materials Jeffrey W. Elam,1 Guang Xiong,2 Catherine Y. Han,2 H. Hau Wang,2 James P. Birrell,2 Ulrich Welp,2 John N. Hryn,1 Michael J. Pellin,2 Theodore F. Baumann,3 John F. Poco,3 and Joe H. Satcher Jr.3 1 Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA 2 Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA 3 Chemistry and Materials Science Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA Received 15 March 2006; Revised 9 May 2006; Accepted 10 May 2006 Atomic layer deposition ALD is ideal for applying precise and conformal coatings over nanoporous materials. We have recently used ALD to coat two nanoporous solids: anodic aluminum oxide AAO and silica aerogels. AAO possesses hexagonally ordered pores with diameters d ～ 40 nm and pore length L ～ 70 microns. The AAO membranes were coated by ALD to fabricate catalytic membranes that demonstrate remarkable selectivity in the oxidative dehydrogenation of cyclohexane. Additional AAO membranes coated with ALD Pd ?lms show promise as hydrogen sensors. Silica aerogels have the lowest density and highest surface area of any solid material. Consequently, these materials serve as an excellent substrate to fabricate novel catalytic materials and gas sensors by ALD. Copyright ? 2006 Je?rey W. Elam et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1. INTRODUCTION trimethyl aluminum Al CH , TMA to deposit a mono- 3 3 layer of aluminum-methyl groups and give o? methane Atomic layer deposition ALD is a thin ?lm growth tech- CH4 as a byproduct. Because TMA is