Abstract
Titanium dioxide powders were prepared via the sol–gel method, using titanium alkoxide as a precursor. It was investigated how the addition of a catalyst (ammonia) and chelating agent (acetylacetone), as well as the temperature of calcination, affects the properties of the resulting TiO2 powder. The physicochemical properties of samples were determined, including the dispersion, morphology and microstructure of the systems (particle size distribution, TEM images), crystalline structure (XRD), characteristics of porous structure (BET), and thermal stability (TGA/DTA). The samples were also analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. In addition, for selected TiO2 systems, their photocatalytic activity in the decomposition of C.I. Basic Blue 9 was investigated. Our research results show that the presence of chelating agent in the synthesis of titanium dioxide caused significant changes in dispersive properties, crystalline structure and porous structure parameters. The novel feature of this work is the proposed method of synthesis of highly photoactive titanium dioxide with desirable physicochemical properties in the presence of a chelating agent such as acetylacetone.
Highlights
The synthesis of titanium dioxide is one of the major research areas in ‘green chemistry.’ Titania is a chemically inert, thermally stable, insoluble, biocompatible, non-toxic material and an excellent absorber of destructive UV radiation
These bands correspond to the presence of primary particles and agglomerates. These samples exhibit high homogeneity, as is shown by the low values of the polydispersity index. It was observed for all of the analyzed materials that, with an increase in the quantity of ammonia used as a catalyst in the process of obtaining TiO2 by the sol–gel method, there is an increase in the particle diameters of the various systems
Titanium dioxide obtained without chelating agent is crystalline after calcination at 300 °C, in contrast to samples prepared with acetylacetone and acetic acid, which prevent the crystallization of titania at temperatures below 400 °C
Summary
The synthesis of titanium dioxide is one of the major research areas in ‘green chemistry.’ Titania is a chemically inert, thermally stable, insoluble, biocompatible, non-toxic material and an excellent absorber of destructive UV radiation. Titania is a chemically inert, thermally stable, insoluble, biocompatible, non-toxic material and an excellent absorber of destructive UV radiation. Because of these properties, titanium dioxide has for some time enjoyed a great and still growing popularity in many applications [1,2,3]. Nanocrystalline TiO2 particles are usually obtained by crystallization (chemical precipitation) [11], the microemulsion method (reverse micelles) [12], the sol–gel method [13,14,15,16,17] or hydrothermal crystallization [18,19,20,21,22] Each of these methods has its own advantages and drawbacks, but a common factor that connects them is the ability to obtain materials with strictly defined properties
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