I'm not sure if it's an amateur level process to deposit an even, superthin layer of TiO2 on to the glass (silica) nanostructures, but even I've anodized plain Ti metal with a battery charger and Coke (regular, not diet) as the electrolyte. Diatom silica structures operate as photonic crystals, but I don't think it's clear to anyone what purpose that has, if it has something to do with gathering light for photosynthesis or if it's for some other purpose "outside" the organism. I've not spent much time looking into the subject, but it's pretty interesting. Nature does fantastic things on the nanoscale at a collectively large scale with dramatic effects. I guess that's why the nanotech bandwagon has so many riders at the moment.
> -----Original Message----- > From: Horace Heffner [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 7:16 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Vo]:Black Silicon > Titanium diox ide itself is a semi-conductor. There are also > a great many ways to pacify the surface of titanium: > > http://www.finishing.com/1200-1399/1265.shtml > > http://www.electrohio.com/Finishing/TiAnodizing/TiAnodizing.htm > > The resulting surface nano-structures produce differing > colors, including black. > > All sorts of ordinary chemicals can be used, including TSP > (trisodium phosphate, a detergent). > > Pacified titanium surfaces might be a great thing for amateur > development of solar cell material. It is also notable that > Ti is CF active, and Pd, Zr, and other potentially CF active > metallic salts are very effective at Ti surface pacification. > > Best regards, > > Horace Heffner > http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/ > > > >
