Patent ID: 8852690

Claim:
A method of forming a film on top of a substrate, comprising the steps of: applying a composition on a surface of the substrate, wherein the composition consists of a polymerizable intermediate product in a solution, and wherein the intermediate product is obtained from a complex metal oxide precursor composition; forming a layer of the composition on the surface; removing a solvent from the layer; and annealing the intermediate product in the layer to produce a metal oxide film having a thickness in the range of 1 nm to 500 nm with a single deposition run to form a cross-linked metal oxide film, wherein the complex metal oxide precursor composition consists of either (1) at least one metal halogenide having the formula I MeX m I wherein Me stands for a metal selected from the group consisting of titanium, germanium, tin, antimony, tantalum, and hafnium, X stands for a halogenide and m represents the valence of the metal, and at least one metal alkoxide having the formula II MeOR 1 m II wherein R 1 stands for a linear or branched, aliphatic or alicyclic alkyl group, which optionally is substituted by 1 to 3 substitutents selected from the group consisting of hydroxy, carboxy, anhydride, oxo, nitro and amido groups, and Me and m have the same meaning as above, or (2) at least one metal compound selected from the group of compounds having the formula III X n MeOR 1 p III wherein Me, X and R 1 have the same meaning as above and n is an integer 0 to m, p is an integer 0 to m, and the sum of n+p is equal to m, m having the same meaning as above.