反蛋白石结构是优化的光子晶体(photonic crystals),利用其光带隙效应和三维有序大孔(three-dimensional ordered macropores, 3DOM)结构,其应用目前已扩展到光伏太阳能电池、染料敏化太阳能电池(dye-sensitized solar cells, DSSCs)、光催化等光(电)化学领域,大大提高了这些过程中的太阳光利用效率。过渡金属氧化物(transition metal oxides, TMOs)是高折射率的半导体材料,在可见光区吸收系数小,很适合用于制备高性能光子晶体。TMOs反蛋白石的制备方法,如:溶胶-凝胶法、金属盐热解法和液相沉积法,电化学沉积法,电泳法,化学气相沉积法(CVD),原子层沉积法(ALD)等,各有其独特的优点也有其本身固有的缺陷。本文对TMOs反蛋白石材料,从制备、性能及其在DSSCs、光催化等过程中应用的角度,对其研究进展进行综述。
Inverse opals structures, which are also called as 3DOM materials in the catalysis science community, are the optimized photonic crystals. Since inverse opals photonic crystals have two important features, photonic band gaps and high specific surface areas, currently their applications have been extended to photo(electro)chemical processes, such as photovoltaic solar cells, DSSCs, photocatalyses, etc.The usages of inverse opals have largely improved the efficiencies of both the utilities of solar energies and the catalyses in above-metioned processes. Transition metal oxides (TMOs) are the oxide semiconductor materials with high refractive index and little light absorptions in the visible wavelength range. Therefore they are suitable candidate materials for preparing high-quality inverse opals photonic crystals. A variety of preparation methods of TMOs inverse opals, for instance, sol-gel, metal salts pyrolysis, liquid phase deposition, electrochemical deposition, electrophoresis, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD) and so on, have been developed. These synthesis processes have their unique advantages and also inherent disadvantages. No matter which technique is employed, obtaining an inverse opal material with big area, single crystal structure, and controlled layer number, would be a great challenge. This paper, from the views of preparations, properties and applications in DSSCs and photocatalyses, reviews the progress in the TMOs inverse opals.