Based-titanium Whiskers Atomic Force Microscopy Study

A brief introduction about surface science characterization methods was reviewed firstly. Then, the mechanism of SPM and TiO2 surface studies by SPM were discussed. Finally, some experiment studies on based-titanium whiskers were introduced in detail.The purpose of the study in this paper was to obtain the surface information of the based-titanium whiskers by AFM as much as possible, which could provide some useful information for the applications of based-titanium whiskers in catalysts, composites, substrates and other aspects. Therefore, some experimental studies were carried out as the following.1. The potassium hexatitanate whisker made by Japan was studied by AFM and the morphology and the surface micro structure images were obtained.2. The based-titanium whiskers made by our lab were studied by AFM and the morphology and the surface microstructure images were also obtained. In low resolution the morphology images are in accordance with the results of the SEM pictures. From K2Ti4O9 to K2Ti6O13 to K2Ti8O16 to TiO2 the based-titanium whiskers keep the almost the same shape. However, in high resolution images show that the surface structures of based-titanium whiskers are evolved from about 10nm to about 100nm periodical structure.3. The surface modified potassium hexatitanate was studied by AFM and IR. The results show the method of surface modified K2O.6TiO2+PTFE 5% heating in electric field is the best among the three samples. In addition, in order to improve titanium dioxide whisker activity of photocatalysis, metal pt particles were deposited on the surface of titanium dioxide whiskers. The AFM images show that the Pt particles are too big. So we should study further.4. Potassium Hexatitanate whisker was studied by lateral force microscopy (LFM). The contrast of the friction between potassium hexatitanate and the substrate was found. The signal of the potassium hexatitanate surface was almost flat, which showed the friction property of potassium hexatitanate surface is uniform. The nuance of the signal is mainly caused by the surface structure.