TiO2 Samples Research Articles

Deposition of heterojunction of ZnO on hydrogenated TiO2 nanotube arrays by atomic layer deposition for enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting

The heterojunction of ZnO was deposited on hydrogenated TiO2 nanotube arrays (H–TiO2) by atomic layer deposition (ALD) with various cycles. The ZnO was uniformly wrapped with the H–TiO2 samples and the thickness could be accurately controlled by the cycle numbers of ALD. The higher growth rate ~2.7 Å/cycle was obtained due to the surface amorphous layer, compared with the air-treated samples (A-TiO2), ~2.3 Å/cycle. When the cycle numbers increased to 200, nanowire arrays appeared. Interestingly, the absorption in the visible light region improved more significantly when ALD ZnO was employed for the H–TiO2 rather than the A-TiO2 samples. The H–TiO2 samples with 42 nm of ALD ZnO exhibited enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting performances, compared with the A-TiO2 with 42 nm of ALD ZnO. This was related to the higher degree of the electronic band bending and improved photo-response in the UV and visible light region, resulting from the oxygen vacancies.

Activation of molecular oxygen in selectively photocatalytic organic conversion upon defective TiO2 nanosheets with boosted separation of charge carriers

Defects play a pivotal role in not only the separation of electrons and holes in photocatalysis but also the activation of molecular oxygen in selective photocatalysis. Herein, defect distribution of TiO2 nanosheets was regulated via annealing the pristine TiO2 sample in oxygen and hydrogen atmospheres successively. The results show that the combination of suitable distribution of oxygen vacancy (VO) promotes the separation of charge carriers, improving the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. More interestingly, VOs boost the activation of molecular oxygen to singlet oxygen (1O2) and superoxide anion radical (•O2–) in selectively photocatalytic oxidation of benzylamine to imine. Generation of 1O2 and •O2– is a competitive process, which can be regulated via adjusting the distribution of oxygen defects, and the key species is 1O2 that can be mainly induced by VOs. These results can provide an avenue to the defect engineering upon photocatalysts used to selective organic synthesis.

B–N co-doped black TiO2 synthesized via magnesiothermic reduction for enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen production

In this work, B–N co-doped TiO2 has been synthesized by a facile fast sol-gel method, and then, a controlled magnesiothermic reduction has been developed to synthesize B–N co-doped black TiO2 under a N2 atmosphere and at 580 °C followed by acid treatment. The prepared black TiO2 samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectrameter, photoluminescence emission spectra, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and ultraviolet–visible diffuse reflectance spectra. It shows that the prepared samples possess a unique crystalline core-amorphous shell structure composed of disordered surface and oxygen vacancies, and exhibit enhanced photocatalytic activity in hydrogen production in the methanol-water system in the presence of Pt as a co-catalyst. Under the full solar wavelength range of light, the maximum hydrogen production rate of the B–N co-doped black TiO2 is 18.8 mmol h−1 g−1, which is almost 4 times higher than that of pure TiO2.

Analysis of oxide content in sand and rock found in public mining of west sumatra province using XRF test

Indonesia is regionally located on two large plates, which are the Pacific plate in the north and the Australian plate in the south. Due to the geological activity of these two plates, it results in a complex tectonic pattern supporting the formation of mineralization. Therefore, Indonesia is considered as a country rich in various minerals and oxide sources. The purpose of this study is as a preliminary study to analyze the element of atom / oxide contained in rocks and sand found in public mining of West Sumatra Province. The initial identification done is to perform X-ray fluorescence test (XRF) on rock samples taken from Jorong Bukit Harapan Darmasraya Regency and Manggani, 50 Kota Regency. The sand samples are taken from Kupitan area Sijunjung Regency, Pinti Kayu Gadang Muara Labuh and jorong pulai Sitiung Darmasraya regency. XRF test results for rock and sand samples from these five areas indicate the presence of six dominant oxides with large percentage i.e. Al2O3, SiO2, P2O5, CaO, TiO2, Fe2O3 oxides. The content of SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, CaO, TiO2, and P2O5 foundon rock samples is quite high 53.01-57.77%, 29.982-32.191%; 5.113-10.302%; 2.119-2.367%; 0.9021.809%, and 0.685-0.968% respectively. Meanwhile, the sand samples indicate the content of SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, CaO, TiO2, and P2O5 15.103-52.652%; 5.379-17.621%; 9.22-58.593%; 1.54-9.22%; 0.702-12.238% and 1.261-2.545% respectively.

Effect of Morphology of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles on Photocatalytic Activity

Dispersing nanoparticles into the matrix is a simple but effective method to improve properties of coating layer. Titanium dioxide (TiO2), known for its photocatalytic activity (PCA) to degrade organic substances and to protect microbial infection, is considered to be potential candidate. However, intense light is required to achieve high PCA. Scattering layer composing of hollow TiO2 nanoparticles, known as light harvester in solar cell devices, may be suitable for photocatalysis at lower light intensity. In this work, we studied the effect of hollow morphology to the PCA of TiO2 nanoparticles. Hollow TiO2 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized using hard-template-assisted sol-gel method. Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) images show hollow TiO2 nanoparticles possessing 125-nm hollow core and 50-nm TiO2 shell. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) results revealed no crystalline peak for both calcined and non-calcined samples, but difference for each sample was reported by Ultraviolet-Visible Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (UV-DRS). UV-DRS spectrum showed the higher diffuse reflectance for both hollow TiO2 samples than the dense counterpart, suggesting multiple light scattering and high reflection. However, energy bandgaps of amorphous and calcined hollow TiO2 samples are higher than dense counterparts.

Base-free glycerol oxidation over N-TiO2 supported Au–Pt catalysts

N-Doped TiO2 materials were used as support for the bimetallic gold-platinum nanoparticles catalysts. Via the sol immobilization technique, the metal particle dimension varied during the immobilization on the different supports. The prepared TiO2 samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 physisorption (BET) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), while the AuPt-TiO2 catalysts were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The oxidation of glycerol by molecular oxygen in the aqueous phase over AuPt/N-TiO2 was investigated in a continuous upflow batch reactor under base-free conditions. The difference in the catalyst activities could be ascribed to the different support. The results revealed that N-doped TiO2 based catalyst support showed a higher activity in the oxidation of glycerol compared to the unfunctionalized one. The highest conversion (92% after 6 h) and the highest selectivity to glyceric acid (79.9%) were achieved using AuPt on TiO2 prepared with chitosan.

Synergistic effect of Mott-Schottky junction with oxygen defect and dramatically improved charge transfer and separation of Bi@Bi-doped TiO2

From viewpoint of engineering application, to dramatically enhance the photocatalyst performance is the absolute truth for solar energy photocatalysis. Although various modification strategies have been developed to enhance the activity of a photocatalyst, the improvement extent is actually not obvious with a single strategy. In this work, abundant bismuth is used to obtain the Bi-doped TiO2 (Dx), Bi@TiO2 (Sy) and Bi@Bi-doped TiO2 (SyDx) samples. Compared with original TiO2, the activities of Dx and Sy can only increase by 0.26 and 1.9 times under UV light irradiation (λ≤ 400 nm), respectively; however, the degradation activity of S10D1 has increased by 4.5 times, showing an obvious synergistic effect between Mott-Schottky junction and oxygen defect, in which oxygen defect and Mott-Schottky junction obviously expands the light adsorption range and promotes reduces the charge transfer and separation. To the best of our knowledge, the abundant, environmental-friendly bismuth-based Bi@Bi-doped TiO2 has not been reported so far. The simple integration strategy is remarkably efficient to greatly enhance the photocatalytic activity, compared to single strategy.

Photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes in the presence of nanostructured titanium dioxide

Titanium dioxide photocatalyst was synthesized through a low temperature co-precipitation process using TiCl4 as a precursor for degradation of Rhodamine B (RB) Acid Red 57 (AR57) and under UV irradiation. The activities of the photocatalyst prepared at calcination temperature 400, 500 and 600 °C were investigated. The resultant TiO2 photocatalyst was characterized by different techniques, such as XRD, SEM, EDX, N2 adsorption and titration for the determination of the zero point charge (pHZPC). It has been found that 400 °C annealed sample of TiO2 exhibits the highest photocatalytic dye degradation efficiency of 93.8 and 90.7% for RB and AR57, respectively within 190 min. The effect of operation parameters such as pH, catalyst dosage, initial dye concentration, as well as the influence of calcination temperatures was evaluated. Results showed that the degradation rate of dyes increased with the increased dosage of TiO2 catalyst and decreased initial concentration of the dye. Furthermore, the kinetics and scavengers of the reactive species during the degradation were also studied. It was found that the degradation of RB and AR57 fitted the first-order kinetics and OH• radicals were the main species. Formation of OH• free radicals during irradiation is determined by photoluminescence studies using terephthalic acid as probe molecule.

Research Synthesis of La3+ Doped TiO2 Nanoparticles by Hydrothermal Method, Study on Photocatalytic Activity of Decomposition of Methylene Blue under Ultraviolet Irradiation

In this study, with the aim of improving the photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2, we studied the synthesis of La3+ doped TiO2 (with doped rates 1%, 2.5%, 5% mol/mol compared to Ti4+) by hydrothermal method. The hydrothermal condition was set at 180 °C for 12 hours. Material characteristics were investigated by XRD, SEM and solid UV-Vis methods. The results show that, all prepared materials have a crystal particle size of about nano-meters, small and smooth (4.5¸6.5 nm). La3+ doped TiO2 samples had a shift towards longer wavelengths (l» 400¸500 nm) compared to non-doped TiO2 sample (l£ 380 nm). The band gap energy (Eg) of La3+ doped TiO2 samples was reduced to 3.04¸3.10 eV . The yield of MB degradation of La3+ doped TiO2 at 5% mol/mol reached the highest ~93% after 60 minutes under ultraviolet irradiation.
 Keywords
 Anatase TiO2, photocatalysis, La3+ doped TiO2, hydrothermal method, ultraviolet irradiation. 
 References
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Enhanced photocatalytic performance of Nd3+-doped TiO2 nanosphere under visible light

Nd3+-doped TiO2 nanosphere is synthesized by template-free method (recombined coprecipitation with hydrothermal method), which possesses anatase TiO2 and TiO2(B) nanosphere structure produced during hydrothermal process. After doping different content neodymium ions, the excellent photocatalytic performance of doped samples have been confirmed by subsequent photodegradation experiments, in which the 1.0 mol% Nd3+-TiO2 sample has been considered the optimum choice owing to its high degradation of 99.14% under visible light irradiation in 120 min, it almost completely degraded methylene blue in 80 min under simulated sunlight. This conclusion is contributed to further industrial application of TiO2 in the degradation of sewage.

Core-shell Ag@Ni cocatalyst on the TiO2 photocatalyst: One-step photoinduced deposition and its improved H2-evolution activity

Compared with well-known Pt, metallic Ag usually shows a far low H2-evolution rate due to its serious capacitive property and poor H2-evolution activity for Ag-modified photocatalysts. Herein, low-cost metallic Ni cocatalyst is directionally assembled onto the Ag nanoparticle to generate core-shell Ag@Ni cocatalyst, with an aim of greatly boosting the hydrogen-generation performance of metallic Ag. In this case, the core-shell Ag@Ni cocatalyst can be easily loaded onto the TiO2 surface to prepare the core-shell Ag@Ni/TiO2 photocatalysts by a facile one-step photoinduced deposition method. Photocatalytic results manifeste that compared with Ag/TiO2, all the core-shell Ag@Ni/TiO2 samples display a markedly enhanced photocatalytic hydrogen-production rate. Especially, the Ag@Ni/TiO2(1.5:1.5) sample exhibits the highest hydrogen-generation rate (2933.9 μmol h−1 g-1, AQE = 12.12%) due to the synergistic effect of metallic Ag and Ni, namely, Ag core as electronic capturer to efficiently collect photoexcited electrons while Ni shell as interfacial active center to boost hydrogen-generation rate.

Syntheses and characterization of Syzygium aromaticum, Elettaria cardamomum and Cinnamomum verum modified TiO2 and their biological applications

Diseases form the major roadblock for the living organism. Many chemicals are isolated to cure diseases. But they are found to have side effects due to allergetic chemicals. NPs are found to be good biological agents. But they are also allergetic in nature. In this study, the properties of TiO2 NPs were modified with bio agents such as Clove, Elachi (Cardamom) and Cinnamon. The anticancer and antibacterial properties were also examined. XRD analysis showed the anatase phase for the pure and modified TiO2 samples. The particle sizes were found to be 7.5 nm for pure, 9.5 nm for Clove modified, 9 nm for Elachi modified and 10.5 nm for Cinnamon modified TiO2 NPs. The synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles were tested against bacterial strains such as Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus mutans using agar diffusion method for antibacterial studies. KB Oral cancer cell line was used to determine the anticancer activities of the synthesized NPs by MTT assay. The synthesized bio modified NPs exhibit significant results against bacterial strains and cancer cell line when compared with the pure NPs.

Synthesis and effect of temperature on morphological and photoluminescence properties of TiO2 nanoparticles

Sol–gel preparation of pure anatase TiO2 calcined at different temperatures has rarely been reported. The current study reports the relative investigation for the elaboration of TiO2 nanoparticles by sol–gel technique. SEM has been considered for the TiO2 samples before as well as for the following calcinations. The XRD pattern illustrated the purity of TiO2 particle materials and the average crystal size of our sample was calculated. The consequences have been discussed in the light of difference of morphological structures of diverse samples of nanomaterials. The optical reflectance of TiO2 nanoparticles demonstrated that all materials have an elevated reflectance (∼ 93%) in the 380–790 nm spectrum. Together for this, the Eg of the elaborated TiO2 samples has been considered from the spectrophotometric examination, which is quite considerable with the reported consequences. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra show that the sample has yellow strong emission.

Sintered ZrO2–TiO2 ceramic composite and its mechanical appraisal

This work mainly considered the effect of different TiO2 additions and of sintering temperatures on the structural change, densification and mechanical properties of ZrO2–TiO2 ceramic composites obtained by cold compaction and subsequent sintering. The results demonstrated that the structural transformation happens from pristine monoclinic zirconia into tetragonal zirconia, amount of cubic phase in as-obtained ZrO2–TiO2 specimens could be distinguished as well. The increasing concentration of TiO2 addition facilitated lower the sintering temperature and densification of ZrO2 matrix. The grain growth and bulk density of ZrO2–TiO2 ceramic composites varied with the sintering temperatures and dopant concentrations. Full evaluation of the role of TiO2 addition and sintering temperature on the mechanical properties of ZrO2–TiO2 samples was carried out in terms of Vickers hardness, flexural strength and fracture toughness. In particular, the ZrO2 matrix with a value of 5 wt % TiO2 generated the desired flexural strength and fracture toughness at the sintering temperature of 1400 °C.

Laser irradiation for controlling size of TiO2-Zeolite nanocomposite in removal of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid herbicide.

This study focused on the synthesis of TiO2-Zeolite nanocomposite through a sol-gel approach. The decrease in the size of the nanocomposite is considered a primary parameter to improve photocatalytic activity. In this regard, fabricated samples were exposed to laser irradiation (532 nm) for four different time intervals in order to investigate the size variation of the nanocomposite. FTIR, UV-Vis, XRD, DLS, SEM and EDX analyses were applied to characterize and determine the size of the products. An optimized nanocomposite sample, in term of the particle size, was used for photodegradation of 2,4-D herbicide from aqueous solution. Photodegradation was carried out under UV irradiation (12 W) and Xe lamp irradiation (200 W). The obtained results showed that laser irradiation time has a substantial effect on controlling the size of the nanocomposite. Results from the photocatalyst study indicated that the elimination of 2,4-D under the Xe lamp irradiation was higher compared with the UV irradiation. Also, the final synthesized nanocomposite exhibited higher catalytic activity for photodegradation of 2,4-D compared with pure Zeolite and pure anatase TiO2 samples. The reusability of TiO2-Zeolite nanocomposite was studied in four successive cycles to evaluate the removal of 2,4-D under UV irradiation.

Effect of Thiourea as a Doping for Nanotitania

Sulphur-doped TiO2 samples were prepared by sol gel method using thiourea as sulphur source. The amount of thiourea solutions are 0; 0.5; 1.0; 1.5 and 2 ml, respectively. Sulphur-doped TiO2 was calcinated at 450°C. Sulphur-doped TiO2 and pure TiO2 were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Photo catalyst tests were carried out under sunlight and UV lamp. Based on XRD characterization, the samples are anatase phase. Furthermore, particle size was calculated using Scherrer equation and results of 8.94 and 12.98 nm, respectively for TBT-1.5 and TBT-0.5. TEM characterization showed that particle size of sulphur-doped TiO2 and pure TiO2 are 8.6 and 12.5 nm. Compared to TiO2 without doping, sulphur-doped TiO2 has a better photo catalyst activity for degradation of remazol golden yellow under visible light.

Micro-structural Evolution and Optical Performance of TiO2 Nano-particles and CdS–TiO2 Nano-composite Materials

In the present work, we elaborated the CdS–TiO2 (CSTO) composite materials and considered their micro-structural and optical properties were investigated. The micro-structure and optical properties were examined by TEM, XRD, absorption and PL. The particles dimensions of composite have been varied from 18 to 22 nm while the typical crystalline size of TiO2 sample materials was varied involving the 9 nm and 14 nm. The direct band-gap of TiO2 nano-particles is 3.33 eV and Eg of CSTO sample is enlarged to 3.31 eV. The TEM show the existence of the CdS could efficiently hibit the agglomeration of the CSTO and progress the dispersion of particles. The photo-luminescence (PL) spectra illustrate that the CSTO sample has two tough emissions. These clarification results from the creation of the CSTO bond and the existence of CdS roughly anatase, which would impede the development of TiO2 powder. The internal micro-structure, thus obtained will make the permanence of our composite sample, allowing a development of optical features of TiO2 composite.

Influence of synthesis route on structural, optical, and electrical properties of TiO2

TiO2 samples with two different morphology were synthesized via sol–gel and hydrothermal techniques. The effect of synthesis procedure on structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties was studied. Rietveld analysis revealed that anatase phase having tetragonal structure dominates at room temperature. The presence of anatse phase of TiO2 was further confirmed by the analysis of various peaks obtained from the Raman spectra. The field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy micrographs depicted the formation of two different kinds of morphologies with average particle size ranging from 9.87 to 11.35 nm. The FESEM micrographs showed homogeneous particle distribution for sol–gel synthesized sample, whereas it depicted rod-like structure in the sample synthesized via hydrothermal technique. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis clearly indicated the presence of appropriate chemical composition and valency states of Ti and O element in TiO2 samples. The optical bandgap was estimated from the UV–visible spectra and found to be in corroboration with the reported values. The conductivity spectra were analyzed using Jonscher power law. The values of activation energy suggested that the conduction mechanism is thermally activated. The conductivity isotherms were scaled through Ghosh scaling model. In the sol–gel synthesized sample, the conduction mechanism was found to be independent of temperature in the entire measured temperature range; however, the hydrothermally synthesized sample depicted that the conduction mechanism is temperature-dependent in the measured temperature range. This discrepancy was understood in terms of structural changes and charge trapping within the structure.

High Sensitivity Humidity Sensor and Its Application in Nondestructive Testing for Wet Paper

In this paper, a capacitive-type humidity sensor based on TiO2/Ag nanoparticle composites film was fabricated on interdigital electrodes. Experimental results showed that a small amount of Ag nanoparticles mixed with TiO2 nanoparticles could greatly improve the sensor sensitivity. Compared with pure TiO2 sample, the improved capacitance variation of sensor raised more than two orders of magnitude. The reduction in water contact angle measurements proved that the hydrophilicity of the film had increased, and the appearance of Warburg impedance at 11% RH in the complex impedance spectra plot indicated that adding Ag improved the absorption ability of composite film. This high-sensitive humidity sensor proposed in this work could enable the nondestructive detection of wet paper and had potential applications in the preservation of ancient manuscripts, historical calligraphies and paintings.

Amorphous and crystalline TiO2 nanoparticle negative electrodes for sodium-ion batteries

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a promising negative electrode for sodium ion batteries (SIBs). Although TiO2 materials with amorphous (A-TiO2) and single-phase crystalline structures (C–TiO2) have been separately explored, the study to compare the fundamental electrochemistry of A-TiO2 and C–TiO2 is limited. In this work, we investigated A-TiO2 and C–TiO2 nanoparticles with identical chemical composition and morphology. C–TiO2 exhibits enhanced electrochemical performance than A-TiO2 in terms of rate capability and cycle life. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis suggests reversible Na ion insertion/extraction in C–TiO2. However, such process is irreversible in the case of A-TiO2. The charge storage mechanisms in both samples were studied to show that diffusion-controlled intercalation process becomes significant in C–TiO2 sample. The C–TiO2 sample has a better Na+ diffusivity measured through the galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT) compared to A-TiO2, which corroborates well with the rate capability study. Furthermore, the evolution of local structure of the TiO2 samples was analyzed by ex situ pair distribution function (PDF) to understand the variation in electrochemical properties. It reveals that the corner-shared Ti–Ti distance along Na ion diffusion pathway increases with the increase of crystallinity, leading to the expanded diffusion channels and therefore more active sites and faster diffusion.