High pressure structural phase transitions of TiO2 nanomaterials**Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2011CB808200), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11374120, 11004075, 10979001, 51025206, 51032001, and 21073071), and the Cheung Kong Scholars Programme of China.

Abstract

Recently, the high pressure study on the TiO2 nanomaterials has attracted considerable attention due to the typical crystal structure and the fascinating properties of TiO2 with nanoscale sizes. In this paper, we briefly review the recent progress in the high pressure phase transitions of TiO2 nanomaterials. We discuss the size effects and morphology effects on the high pressure phase transitions of TiO2 nanomaterials with different particle sizes, morphologies, and microstructures. Several typical pressure-induced structural phase transitions in TiO2 nanomaterials are presented, including size-dependent phase transition selectivity in nanoparticles, morphology-tuned phase transition in nanowires, nanosheets, and nanoporous materials, and pressure-induced amorphization (PIA) and polyamorphism in ultrafine nanoparticles and TiO2-B nanoribbons. Various TiO2 nanostructural materials with high pressure structures are prepared successfully by high pressure treatment of the corresponding crystal nanomaterials, such as amorphous TiO2 nanoribbons, α-PbO2-type TiO2 nanowires, nanosheets, and nanoporous materials. These studies suggest that the high pressure phase transitions of TiO2 nanomaterials depend on the nanosize, morphology, interface energy, and microstructure. The diversity of high pressure behaviors of TiO2 nanomaterials provides a new insight into the properties of nanomaterials, and paves a way for preparing new nanomaterials with novel high pressure structures and properties for various applications.