{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]],"date-time":"2026-03-03T06:12:20Z","timestamp":1772518340029,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,16]],"date-time":"2022-08-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1660608000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Research Foundation of Korea Grant"},{"name":"Korean Government (MOE)"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Sequential infiltration synthesis (SIS) is a novel technique for fabricating organic\u2013inorganic hybrid materials and porous inorganic materials by leveraging the diffusion of gas-phase precursors into a polymer matrix and chemical reactions between the precursors to synthesize inorganic materials therein. This study aims to obtain a fundamental understanding of the physicochemical mechanisms behind SIS, from which the SIS processing conditions are rationally designed to obtain precise control over the distribution of metal oxides. Herein, in situ FTIR spectroscopy was correlated with various ex situ characterization techniques to study a model system involving the growth of aluminum oxides in poly(methyl methacrylate) using trimethyl aluminum (TMA) and water as the metal precursor and co-reactant, respectively. We identified the prominent chemical states of the sorbed TMA precursors: (1) freely diffusing precursors, (2) weakly bound precursors, and (3) precursors strongly bonded to pre-existing oxide clusters and studied how their relative contributions to oxide formation vary in relation to the changes in the rate-limiting step under different growth conditions. Finally, we demonstrate that uniform incorporation of metal oxide is realized by a rational design of processing conditions, by which the major chemical species contributing to oxide formation is modulated.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s22166132","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,17]],"date-time":"2022-08-17T03:15:27Z","timestamp":1660706127000},"page":"6132","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Understanding Physicochemical Mechanisms of Sequential Infiltration Synthesis toward Rational Process Design for Uniform Incorporation of Metal Oxides"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7602-7566","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jiwoong","family":"Ham","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Minkyung","family":"Ko","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4279-7719","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Boyun","family":"Choi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0018-9603","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hyeong-U","family":"Kim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Plasma Engineering, Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM), Daejeon 34103, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nari","family":"Jeon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"190901","DOI":"10.1063\/1.5128108","article-title":"The chemical physics of sequential infiltration synthesis\u2014A thermodynamic and kinetic perspective","volume":"151","author":"Waldman","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. 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