Ultrafast and Universal Synthetic Route for Nanostructured Transition Metal Oxides Directly Grown on Substrates

Nanostructured transition metal oxides (NTMOs) have consistently piqued scientific interest for several decades due to their remarkable versatility across various fields. More recently, they have gained significant attention as materials employed for energy storage/harvesting devices as well as electronic devices. However, mass production of high-quality NTMOs in a well-controlled manner still remains challenging. Here, a universal, ultrafast, and solvent-free method is presented for producing highly crystalline NTMOs directly onto target substrates. The findings reveal that the growth mechanism involves the solidification of condensed liquid-phase TMO microdroplets onto the substrate under an oxygen-rich ambient condition. This enables a continuous process under ambient air conditions, allowing for processing within just a few tens of seconds per sample. Finally, it is confirmed that the method can be extended to the synthesis of various NTMOs and their related compounds.