Oxide shell structures and methods of making oxide shell structures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10315177-B2
Application number	US-201515517324-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 8, 2015
Priority date	Oct 10, 2014
Publication date	Jun 11, 2019
Grant date	Jun 11, 2019

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide for substrates having an oxide shell layer (e.g., a silica shell layer), methods of making an oxide shell layer, and the like.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for forming a hollow metal oxide shell layer, comprising:
providing a substrate having a hydrophobic surface with a plurality of nucleation sites and a water vapor source, a catalyst vapor source, and a hydrolyzable metal oxide precursor vapor source in a closed chamber;
saturating the atmosphere of the closed chamber with the water vapor, the catalyst vapor and the hydrolyzable metal oxide precursor vapor;
condensing the water vapor at the nucleation sites on the surface of the substrate to form a plurality of water droplets;
hydrolyzing the hydrolyzable metal oxide precursor at an air-water interface of the water droplets in the presence of the catalyst vapor to immobilize each water droplet in a metal oxide shell; and
removing the water to produce a substrate having a layer comprising a plurality of hollow metal oxide shells disposed on the hydrophobic surface.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrolyzable metal oxide precursor is a hydrolyzable silica precursor, hydrolyzable titanium oxide precursor, hydrolyzable zirconium oxide precursor, hydrolyzable tantalum oxide precursor, or a combination thereof.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of nucleation sites comprises an array of organosilane aggregates.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the organosilane is perfluorooctyltrichlorosilane (PTCS).

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising forming the organosilane aggregates by vapor-depositing the PTCS on the substrate at a temperature of 30° C., 60° C., 90° C., or 120° C.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the hydrolyzable metal oxide precursor includes a hydrolyzable silica precursor is selected from the group consisting of tetrapropyl orthosilicate, silicon tetrachloride, and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS).

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the water vapor source and catalyst vapor source is a first solution comprising an aqueous ammonium solution and the hydrolyzable metal oxide vapor source is a second solution comprising TEOS.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hydrophobic substrate is selected from the group consisting of glass, borosilicate glass, soda lime glass, hydrated glass, dehydrated glass, perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane-modified zinc-oxide nanorod arrays, silicon substrates with a thermally oxidized layer, and flexible plastics.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the aqueous ammonia solution comprises 20% w/v ammonium hydroxide.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the condensing and hydrolyzing occur concurrently.

11. The method of claim 4 , wherein the PTCS aggregates have an average size within a range of 22.6±9.7 nm.

12. The method of claim 5 , wherein the substrate is glass and the method further comprises preparing the substrate for vapor-deposition by dehydrating the glass.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein the metal oxide shells are 20-30 nm thick.

Assignees

• Univ King Abdullah Sci & Tech

Inventors

• Beaujuge Pierre M
• Gao Yangqin

Classifications

• B01J37/033

  Using Hydrolysis · CPC title

• C01B33/126

  Preparation of silica of undetermined type · CPC title

• B01J37/0072

  Preparation of particles, e.g. dispersion of droplets in an oil bath · CPC title

• B01J10/02 Primary

  of the thin-film type · CPC title

• C23C16/003 Primary

  Coating on a liquid substrate · CPC title