Mesostructured Tungsten Oxide Film Prepared from Tungstic Acid via a Surfactant Templated Sol-Gel Method

Wei Wang, University of Teesside

In recent years, tungsten trioxide has attracted considerable interest, as a promising candidate for catalysis, photo-oxidation of water, gas sensing and electrochromic materials [1]. Importantly, it has been demonstrated that better kinetics for coloration and bleaching that are exhibited in comparison to the standard sol–gel-derived tungsten oxide films has been realized on mesostructured tungsten oxide films [2]. Therefore, the synthesis of mesostructured tungsten oxide has drawn much attention in recent years. Among the methods for the preparation of mesostructured tungsten oxide, surfactant templated sol-gel method using WCl6 as tungsten precursor is widely studied. Tungstic acid (TA), although widely used for preparation of non-templated sol-gel tungsten oxide film, is rarely investigated as tungsten precursor for preparing mesoporous tungsten oxide film. In this study, thermally stable mesoporous tungsten oxide film coated on glass substrate was prepared by non-ionic Brij 56 templated sol-gel method using TA as tungsten source.

 

XRD patterns tungsten oxide/surfactant hybrid films as function of different drying processes.

By careful selection of suitable non-ionic surfactant and drying processes, the thermally stable mesostructured tungsten oxide film can withstand calcination at high temperatures up to 450oC. Such thermally stable mesostructured tungsten oxide film produced from TA has not been reported yet according to our best knowledge.

[1] (a) H. Habazaki, et al, Electrochim. Acta, 2002, 47, 4181. (b) C. Santato, et al, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2001, 105, 936. (c)J. Tamaki, et al, Electrochemistry, 2006, 74, 159. [d] M. Deepa, et al, Electrochim. Acta, 2005, 50, 3545
[2] W. Cheng, et al, J. Mater. Chem. 2001, 11, 92.

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