Abstract

Mesolamellar TiO₂ films, through self-assembly of titanium alkoxide and surfactants, have been prepared on glass substrates at 50 °C in air and under hydrothermal conditions, respectively. The multilayer composite materials thus obtained are different from the well-known nanocrystalline TiO₂ films. XRD and TEM results clearly show the formation of a lamellar structure and SEM results reveal that the lamellar TiO₂ films grow on the glass substrates in a layer by layer fashion. The thickness of the TiO₂ layer intercalated between the organic species is maintained around 1 nm, independent of the alkyl length of the surfactant used. Other techniques including IR, XPS and DR UV-vis spectroscopy were used to further characterize the nanostructured TiO₂ films. Room temperature photoluminescence of multilayered TiO₂ films is detectable with an excitation of 300 nm, which might arise from the interfacial effect between the titania layers and the surfactants.