Benzylamines as Versatile Agents for the One‐Pot Synthesis and Highly Ordered Stacking of Anatase Nanoplatelets

The simple reaction of titanium isopropoxide in benzylamine is shown to lead to remarkably complex, highly ordered hybrid structures. These structures consist of anatase nanoplatelets that were stacked in a lamellar fashion with a small organic layer in between. By careful characterization of these structures, we show that indeed solely the benzylamine solvent is present in the organic moiety between the nanocrystals, which thereby provides both shape control and alignment of the inorganic crystals. The solvent also plays a central role during the anatase formation itself; hence, it enacts control on the forming materials on a multitude of levels.(© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2008)