Crystallization of nanostructures

Various metal oxides are potentially interesting in nanostrystalline form for diverse applications in the field of energy storage, energy conversion, sensing, etc. However, in most cases only the fully crystalline modification of the respective oxide shows the desired physico-chemical performance. We try to develop sol-gel chemistry routes to prepare well-defined nanostructures (nanoparticles or pores) in highly crystalline form, in particular in the form of thin films. Interestingly, certain oxides, e.g. prepared by dip-coating of dilute solutions, show preferred crystallographic orientation with respect to the substrate (e.g. glas) after annealing, which is usually only observed for single-crystalline substrates.