Synthesis and Characterization of Titania Nanoparticles on the Surface of Microporous Perlite Using Sol–Gel Method: Influence of Titania Precursor on Characteristics

Abstract

Titania colloidal nanoparticles have been successfully fabricated by a very simple and inexpensive sol–gel spin-coating method on the surface perlite granules. This was achieved by adjustment of the sol–gel parameters such as the precursors, spin-coating time and heating processes. Five samples were prepared using different titania e.g. Millennium, Degussa P25, titania nanoparticle, sol–gel derived titania and rutile nanoparticles precursors. Titania nanoparticles were grown on perlite granules by the controlled immobilization of titania. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were employed to investigate the growth and morphology of the titania coating on perlite granules. The results showed surface modification of perlite granules with uniform coating of titania on supports and confirmed that the coatings are composed of aggregated crystallites of 11–61 nm in diameter, good compositional uniformity and good adherence of the fabricated titania layer on perlite granules. The synthesis of adsorptive supports for immobilization of powdery photocatalysts would show significant improvements in both practical use and degradation efficiency of photocatalysis in environmental protection.