Temperature effect on the nucleation and growth of TiO2 colloidal nanoparticles

Abstract

The nucleation and growth of sol-gel derived TiO2 colloidal nanoparticles have been studied using experiment and theory as well. In this study, the temperature effect on the formation of TiO2 nanoparticles was discussed and some effective parameters such as the supply rate of solute (Q0), the mean volumic growth rate of stable nuclei during the nucleation period (u), the diffusion coefficient of [Ti]+4 ions and the nucleus size were determined. The formation of TiO2 nanoparticles in three different temperatures (60, 70 and 80°C) was studied. The obtained results showed that the process temperature has a considerable impact on the nucleation and growth of TiO2 nanoparticles. It can be concluded that increasing the temperature leads to a decrease of the supersaturation and an increase of the nucleus size, supply rate of monomer, nanoparticles density and growth rate as evident from LaMer diagram.