Effect of water content on the performance and structure of nanosized TiO₂ sol

Abstract

Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) sol was prepared using tetrabutyl titanate as a precursor via an acid catalyzed sol–gel process. The influence of water content on the sol density, viscosity, stability and particle size were studied and based on the kinematic viscosity data, Gibbs energies (ΔG*) of activation of the viscous flow was also calculated. Furthermore, the obtained TiO₂ materials were characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The results showed that, with the increase of water content, the sol viscosity and zeta potential were increased and the particle size distribution was narrow. When the molar ratio of H₂O/Ti reached 4, the prepared sol was transparent, uniform and stable, and the sol average particle size gets the minimum. Ti–O–Ti bond was the primary structure of TiO₂ sol and the formed titanium molecules possessed the line-typed structure. The increase of water content nearly had no obvious influence on the chemical structure of sol. The TiO₂ gel material was the amorphous state and it turned into anatase type after calcination at 350°C.

Keywords:

• TiO₂ sol
• Viscous activation Gibbs free energy
• particle size distribution
• zeta potential

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge the financial assistance from the National Natural of China 21573171, Shaanxi Province Key Research and Development Plan of China 2017GY-121 and Shaanxi Province College Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program Project of China 201822010.