Aerosol-assisted synthesis of hierarchically organized titania and titanates nanostructures

Abstract

The aerosol route, representing a feasible bottom-up technique for nanomaterials processing in disperse system, was applied for the low-temperature (T=150 oC) synthesis of spherical, nonagglomerated, hierarchically organized titania and titanates nanostructures. The diverse levels of structural, morphological and functional complexity were explored by using appropriate colloidal precursors comprising either spherical nanoparticles or nanotubes. In both cases, spherical, grained, submicronic sized particles with the average diameter of ~350 nm for titania and ~ 450 nm for titanates were obtained. The detailed structural and morphological investigations were done according to X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), scanning and field emission electron microscopy (SEM/FESEM), particle size distribution (PSD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results. Results revealed that particles have clustered inner structure and are composed from primary nanounits in form of nanoparticles or nanotubes. Such hierarchically organized particles are expected to have potential application not only in the field of photovoltaics but also in various branches of photocatalysis.