Many applications of mesoporous thin film architectures, including sensors, (photo)catalysis, photovoltaics, optical coatings and protective barriers are directly affected by structural properties, which include high surface area, surface functionalisation, and bicontinuous percolation paths on the 10nm length scale.
Although porosimetry of bulk materials via sorption techniques is common practice, the characterisation of thin mesoporous films with small sample volumes remains a challenge. In our group, we have developed a number of suitable characterisation techniques towards the reliable structural characterisation of mesoporous films, including one of the most advanced platforms for ellipsometry.
![Overview schematic of porous thin film metrology Overview schematic of porous thin film metrology](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/responsive-nanomaterials/sites/responsive_nanomaterials/files/styles/large_image/public/toc_metrology.png?itok=7urPsony)
Key publications:
Interparticle forces of a native and encapsulated metal-organic framework and their effects on colloidal dispersion (link)
EL Butler, B Reid, PF Luckham, S Guldin, AG Livingston, C Petit
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, vol. 13, pp. 45898 - 45906 (2021).
Fluorinated metal-organic coatings with selective wettability (link)
S Pan, JJ Richardson, AJ Christofferson, QA Besford, T Zheng, BJ Wood, X Duan, MJ Fornerod, CF McConville, I Yarovsky, S Guldin, L Jian, F Caruso
Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 143, pp. 9972 - 9981 (2021).
Structural characterization of mesoporous thin film architectures: a tutorial overview (link)
A Alvarez-Fernandez, B Reid, MJ Fornerod, A Taylor, G Divitini, S Guldin
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, vol. 12, pp. 5195 – 5208 (2020).
Robust operation of mesoporous antireflective coatings under variable ambient conditions (link)
B Reid, A Tayor, Y Chen, B Schmidt-Hansberg, S Guldin
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, vol. 10, pp. 10315 – 10321 (2018).