Crystallization-Induced Uniform Nanodot Formation of Titanium Dioxide Films

We propose a simple technique to fabricate a uniform nanodot array of titanium dioxide via two-dimensional shrinkage in the amorphous-to-crystalline (anatase) transformation during calcination of a precursor film. Increasing the calcination temperature from 400 °C to 600 °C enhances the crystal size diameter from ca. 10 to 20 nm, while mixing the precursor film with a thermotropic liquid crystalline amphiphilic block copolymer results in dot arrays with more uniform particle size. We propose a simple technique to fabricate a uniform nanodot array of titanium dioxide via the amorphous-to-crystalline (anatase) transformation during calcination of a precursor film. Increasing the calcination temperature enhances the crystal size diameter from ca. 10 to 20 nm, while mixing the precursor film with a thermotropic liquid crystalline amphiphilic block copolymer gives a 20-nm dot array with an improved uniformity.