Soft-templating synthesis of mesoporous magnetic CuFe2O4 thin films with ordered 3D honeycomb structure and partially inverted nanocrystalline spinel domains.

Combining sol-gel chemistry with polymer templating strategies enables production of CuFe(2)O(4) thin films with both an ordered cubic network of 17 nm diameter pores and tunable spinel domain sizes. These nanocrystalline materials contain only minor structural defects with λ = 0.85 ± 0.02 and exhibit multiple functionalities, including superparamagnetic behavior (T(B)≈ 310 K) and redox- and photoactivity. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012