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A silica-colloidal template approach was used to prepare monodisperse nanospheres of TiO2. Close-packed arrays of silica spheres were infiltrated with a sucrose precursor used as a source of carbon. The infiltrated sucrose was carbonized by calcination at 800 °C in flowing argon. After removal of the silica spheres by washing with HF, a porous carbon replica remained. The resulting pores in the replica were then filled with a chloroform solution of titanium alkoxide. Nanospheres of TiO2 approximately 200 nm in diameter were obtained after calcination of the organic component at 600 °C in an argon atmosphere and subsequent sintering in air at 700 °C.

The structural, magnetic, and transport properties of a mono-layered manganite La 0.7 Sr 1.3 MnO 4+δ were investigated using variable temperature neutron powder diffraction as well as magnetization and transport measurements. The compound adopts the tetragonal I4/mmm symmetry and exhibits no magnetic reflection in the temperature region of 10 K ≤ T ≤ 300 K. A weak ferromagnetic (FM) transition occurs about 130 K, which almost coincides with the onset of a metal-insulator (M-I) transition. Extra oxygen that occupies the interstitial site between the [(La,Sr)O] layers makes the spacing between the [MnO 2 ] layers shorten, which enhances the inter-layer coupling and eventually leads to the M-I transition. We also found negative magneto resistance (MR) below the M-I transition temperature, which can be understood on the basis of the percolative transport via FM metallic domains in the antiferromagnetic (AFM) insulating matrix.