Patent ID: 7781028

Claim:
A method of preparing a thin film material of an amorphous metal oxide having a density of 0.8 to 2.5 g/cm 3 , and a thickness of 0.5 to 50 nm, comprising the steps of: (1) adsorbing substrates onto a surface of a plate; (2) bringing a compound having a metal alkoxide group into contact with said substrates to thereby allow said compound having a metal alkoxide group to chemically adsorb on a surface of said substrates; (3) removing through rinsing any portion of said compound having a metal alkoxide group which was not adsorbed on the surface of said substrates; (4) hydrolyzing said compound having a metal alkoxide group to thereby form a metal oxide thin film; (5) allowing the metal oxide thin film to contact with an adsorption-active organic compound capable of chemically adsorbing onto said metal oxide thin film and of forming reactive groups having reactivity with the metal alkoxide group of said compound having a metal alkoxide group, so the metal oxide thin film on said substrates adsorbs the adsorption-active organic compound; (6) removing any portion of said organic compound not adsorbed in step (5) to thereby form an organic compound thin film; (7) repeating steps (2)-(6) at least once to obtain an organics-metal oxide composite thin film; and (8) removing an organic component from said organics-metal oxide composite thin film by an oxygen plasma treatment to form said thin film material of an amorphous metal oxide, wherein the substrates are organic particles, and the organic particles are removed by said oxygen plasma treatment to form the thin film material, and wherein said thin film material includes hollow amorphous metal oxide grains that are crosslinked with each other.