Large-pore mesoporous titania-silica thin films (Ti1−xSixO2, 0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.9) with highly interdispersed mixed oxide frameworks

Large-size mesoporous thin films with a mixed titania-silica framework and an Im3¯m cubic-derived or worm-like mesostructure were obtained by combining sol-gel and macromolecular templating techniques. These materials presented accessible mesopores (20 to 25% pore volume), tunable refractive index and high molecular-scale mixing of both ions, as demonstrated by UV-Visible, FTIR and XANES spectroscopy. In addition, a composition effect in the catalytic reduction of silver was found, which permitted one to obtain homogeneous metal nanoparticle-mesoporous film nanocomposites with tuned plasmon position.