Preparation and characterization of structural properties for TiO2 and CuO nanostructures by sol-gel technique

Abstract

The nano-powder synthesis of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) from industrial titanium dioxide and sodium hydroxide and copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) from copper nitrate and citric acid by sol-gel technique. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), EDS, FESEM and TEM were used to characterize the resulted nano materials which are titanium dioxide nanoparticles and copper oxide nanoparticles. The characterization measurements prove that the titanium dioxide nanoparticles were prepared with an average crystallite size of 17.25 nm, while the average crystallite size of copper oxide nanoparticles were found to be 15.33 nm. According to SEM investigation, the crystalline form appeared as a sphere like nanostructure or nano cluster, with the resulting nanoparticles having a polyhedral shape. TEM analysis at the nanoscale confirmed the spherical morphology of the produced copper oxide nanoparticles and titanium dioxide nanoparticles. However, the method that used here for the preparation of copper oxide nanoparticles and titanium dioxide nanoparticles could be considered a very promising method for such preparation.