Abstract
A titania-silica nanocomposite system with six different compositions (10/90, 20/80, 40/60, 50/50, 60/40, 80/20 molar ratio of TiO 2/SiO 2) was prepared by a sol-gel method. Different experimental techniques such as XRD, TEM, EDAX, DTA and density measurements by Archimedes' method were used to characterize each composition. The synthesized specimens had two structural phases: (i) crystalline TiO 2 in anatase form; and (ii) a SiOTi bonded glassy phase. TEM results showed that spherical shaped TiO 2 particles are dispersed in a disk-shaped SiOTi bonded glassy matrix. This glassy matrix creates an anti-sintering effect, which controls the growth of the TiO 2 particles. The size of the TiO 2 crystallites vary with an increase of the sintering temperature and in the range 10–50 nm. At 1300°C, two types of structural modifications, (i) anatase to rutile and (ii) crystallization of SiO 2, occur within the system. The calculated bulk density value increases with sintering temperature and also with an increase of TiO 2 concentration.
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