Facile synthesis of potassium hexatitanate whiskers by calcination at low temperature

Abstract

Traditional calcination method is very popular for large-scale production of potassium hexatitanate (K2Ti6O13) whiskers. While the required high resultant temperature (always over 1000 °C) will consume more energy and increase the costs. Therefore, it is of great practical interest to explore efficient synthesis methods for K2Ti6O13 whiskers. In the present work, K2Ti6O13 whiskers were directly synthesized from TiO2, K2CO3, and carbon black by a facile calcination method. The well-crystallized K2Ti6O13 whiskers with 3–5 μm in length and 0.1–0.3 μm in diameter can be obtained when the molar ratio of K2CO3 to TiO2 was 1:6 at the calcining temperature as low as 800 °C. The generated CO2 from oxidation of carbon black slowed down the violence of the synthesis reaction rate for potassium titanates, and the lower synthesizing temperature decreased the volatilization loss of molten K2CO3, resulting in the promoted development of whiskers. The facile and low-cost synthesis method presented in this work indicated promising application in the large-scale production of K2Ti6O13 whiskers.