Mesoporous TiO₂ Microparticles with Tailored Surfaces, Pores, Walls, and Particle Dimensions Using Persistent Micelle...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Chemical Engineering

Background:

• Mesoporous microparticles offer high surface area for diverse applications like drug delivery, catalysis, and energy storage.
• Controlling architectural dimensions (mesopore size, wall thickness, microparticle size) is crucial for performance but synthetically challenging.
• A tunable surface skin layer, impacting transport and encapsulation, has been an overlooked parameter in previous mesoporous microparticle studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a synthetic method for precisely controlling mesoporous microparticle dimensions.
• To investigate the formation and tunability of the surface skin layer.
• To demonstrate independent control over mesopore size and wall thickness.

Main Methods:

• Utilized phase separation of material precursors and block polymer micelles from a homopolymer matrix.
• Employed a layer integration via diffusion (LID) model to explain and control skin layer formation.
• Introduced persistent micelle templates (PMT) for independent tuning of pore size and wall thickness.
• Analyzed kinetic effects of processing parameters on microparticle size.

Main Results:

• Achieved independent control over mesopore size and wall thickness for the first time using PMT.
• Demonstrated kinetic control over the surface skin layer thickness, explained by the LID model.
• Identified key processing parameters influencing microparticle size.

Conclusions:

• The developed method allows unprecedented control over mesoporous microparticle architecture.
• Tunable mesoporous microparticles with controlled skin layers can be fabricated for optimized performance.
• This advance opens new possibilities for designing advanced nanomaterials for various technological applications.