Chemical Vapor Deposition Topotaxy in Porous Hosts

The application of chemical vapor deposition techniques to the “internal surface” of porous hosts, termed “CVD topotaxy”, is reviewed. Various organometallic species are found to anchor on the internal surfaces of zeolites; species such as methyltrioxorhenium, displaying remarkable optical effects as the result of polymerization processes, and tungsten and molybdenum carbonyls forming redox‐tunable tungsten and molybdenum oxides. Topotaxy has contributed to the quest for spatial confinement of semiconductors through the MOCVD of cadmium, zinc, and tin sulfides in the 13 Å cavities of zeolite Y. This has also been applied to Si and Ge semiconductors, with special applications to the field of luminescent silicon. Finally, Si encapsulation in mesoporous hosts is discussed.