Thermal and hydrothermal stability of flame hydrolytically synthesized SiO2/TiO2 mixed oxides

Abstract

The phase stability of the two TiO2 modifications (anatase and rutile) in fumed SiO2/TiO2 nano-composites (0–24.8 wt-% silica) under thermal and hydrothermal conditions was investigated by X-ray powder diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and gas adsorption methods (BET). The results show that the phase transformation from anatase to rutile type of structure and the growth of anatase crystallites are significantly retarded by mixing small amounts of SiO2 into TiO2, while the specific surface area is maintained. The SiO2/TiO2-composites reveal a remarkable shift in the anatase to rutile transformation temperature from approx. 500 °C (pure TiO2) to approx. 1000 °C (samples with SiO2 contents of more than 10%). The rate of phase transformation from anatase to rutile is enhanced under hydrothermal conditions compared to conventional thermal treatment, e.g. pure titania (AEROXIDE® TiO2 P25) annealed under hydrothermal conditions (100 g/m3 absolute humidity, 4 h at 600 °C) had a rutile content of 85%, while the same specimens annealed in absence of humidity contained only 46% rutile. However, the difference in rate of phase transformation became less pronounced when the silica content in SiO2/TiO2-composites was further increased.TEM results showed that the surface of the anatase crystallites was covered with silica. This averts coalescence of anatase crystallites and keeps them under a critical size during the annealing process. When the crystal domains grew larger, a rapid conversion to rutile took place. The critical size of anatase crystallites for the phase transformation was estimated to be 15–20 nm.