Synthesis and Morphological Characterization of Gold Nanoparticles (AuNPs) Supported on Anodized Titanium Oxide (TiO<sub>2</sub>) Nanotubes

Abstract

Increasing interest of attachment gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on titanium oxide (TiO2) nanotubes has been devoted to give tremendous properties suitable for catalysis application. Nevertheless, achieving precise control of attachment AuNPs on the TiO2 nanotubes substrate by conventional methods such as thermal evaporation and conservative heating are far from satisfactory. Herein, in this work a new approach has been developed to synthesize controlled and uniformed attachment of AuNPs onto electrochemically-anodized TiO2 nanotubes by deposition-precipitation method. The structural and elemental characterizations of the supported AuNPs are carried out by means of field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis. The FESEM image showed the anodized TiO2 nanotube with good morphological structure is successfully fabricated at a voltage of 20 V and in a mixture electrolyte of ethylene glycol containing 0.5 wt% ammonium fluoride solutions with an average nanotubes diameter of 87 nm. Meanwhile, the attachment of AuNPs on the fabricated TiO2 nanotubes has been effectively achieved for both calcined and uncalcined samples. The EDX analysis has confirmed the deposition of AuNPs over the TiO2 nanotubes. The results showed that we had succeeded in synthesizing the AuNPs supported on the anodized TiO2 nanotubes, which provide superior metal-metal oxide synthetic devices for diverse applications.