《Block Copolymer Templating》.pdfVIP

Electronic Supplementary Material (ESI) for Journal of Materials Chemistry This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012 Electronic Supplementary Information (ESI) Vertically Oriented Hexagonal Mesoporous Zirconia Thin Films by Block Copolymer Templating Annamária Mikó *, A. Levent Demirel and Mehmet Somer Chemistry Department, Koç University, Rumelifeneri Yolu, Sariyer 34450, İstanbul, Turkey Materials and Methods. Block copolymer templating and evaporation induced self assembly were used to synthesize mesoporous zirconia. Polyethylene oxide based block copolymer Pluronic F127 (Pluronic F127 (poly(ethylene oxide) –poly(propylene oxide) –poly(ethylene oxide) , PEO PPO PEO ) was purchased 106 70 106 106 70 106 from Sigma-Aldrich. The polymer had average molecular weight of 12500 gmol-1. Zirconium(IV) oxychloride octahydrate was used as the inorganic precursor and was obtained from Riedel-de Haën in analytical reagent grade. The solutions were prepared in mixture of ethanol and double deionized water at 40-90 volume % of water. Pluronic F127 was first dissolved in ethanol. Zirconium salt was then added to the solution and finally the water was introduced to the system. The final concentration of Pluronic F127 was 0.2-50 mgml-1 and that of zirconium salt was 0.25 M. The films were spin coated on silica, glass or gold coated glass substrates at 40-60 % relative humidity at 20-35 oC. Spin coating was don