Highly Pure Brookite Phase of TiO2 from Salicylaldehyde Modified Titanium(IV) Isopropoxide: Synthesis, Characterization and Photocatalytic Applications

Abstract

The present work focuses on the synthesis of brookite phase of titania by simple sol–gel route using single source molecular precursors (SSMPs); [Ti(OPri)2(CH2OC6H4O)] (1) and [Ti(OPri)(CH2OC6H4O)(CHOC6H4O)] (2), which is otherwise difficult to obtain in its pure form. Both the precursors have been characterized by 1H & 13C{1H} NMR, FT-IR, ESI–MS techniques whereas the titania samples have been characterized by PXRD patterns, SEM and TEM images. For inspecting the utility of synthesized titania, phtocatalytic degradation of dyes congo red (cationic) and new methylene blue (anionic) have also been performed. In both the cases, the synthesized titania showed excellent efficiency advocating its practical application in dye industry.