**6. References**


[7] Kim D.H, Kim J (2006) Synthesis of LiFePO4 Nanoparticles in Polyol Medium and Their Electrochemical Properties. Electrochem. solid-state lett. 9: A439-A442.

**Chapter 13** 

© 2012 Nagai and Sato, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2012 Nagai and Sato, licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**Heat Treatment in Molecular Precursor** 

Industrial processes must minimize heat-treatment to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions during the manufacture of products. In particular, fossil fuels should be conserved for the next generation. However, the use of heat-treatment is essential in the

In many cases, the materials' functions depend on their surfaces. From this point of view, modification by thin film fabrication on various substrates, as opposed to manufacturing the entire body with the functional material, can generally save resources. The molecular precursor method (MPM) that was developed in our study is a wet chemical process for fabricating metal oxide and phosphate thin films [1-11]. This method requires heattreatment to eliminate organic ligands from metal complexes involved in spin-coated precursor films and to fabricate thin films of crystallized metal oxides or phosphates. We emphasize the importance of heat-treatment by describing recent results obtained using the MPM, which show great potential for the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology

This chapter focuses on the transparent thin film fabrication of both a visible (Vis)-lightresponsive anatase thin film having enhanced UV sensitivity and an unprecedented Visresponsive rutile thin film on glass substrates. These photoreactive thin films were easily fabricated using the MPM. Heat-treatment under controlled conditions produced these attractive thin films. Thin film fabrication of a highly conductive Ag nanoparticles/titania composite and several metal oxides, including Cu2O, will be also discussed, illustrating the broad utility of the MPM and the importance of heat-treatment in this novel wet process.

**Method for Fabricating Metal** 

**Oxide Thin Films** 

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/50676

**1. Introduction** 

tools and materials.

Hiroki Nagai and Mitsunobu Sato

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

manufacturing processes of many highly functional materials.

