Photocatalytic metamaterials: TiO2 inverse opals

摘要

The study of the photocatalytic activity of TiO2 inverse opals showed that these structures behave as metamaterials: their properties arise principally from the 3D periodic structure of the material and marginally from porosity, reflectivity and scattering. Among photonic crystals titania inverse opals (TIOs) have attracted a lot of research, even if their photonic band-gap (PBG) is brittle and not complete in 3D,1 because of their relevant surface area and porosity and their ability to mould the flow of light generating slow photons. We refer to slow photons as light propagating at very low group velocity. In a