Studies On The Preparation Of TiO₂ Nanoparticles In Microemulsions And Effects Of Reaction Conditions On The Particle Size And Morphologies

The nanometer sized titania is an important high performance fine inorganic materials. Because of its advantages, such as good resistance to weathering, chemical resistance, big specific surface area, high surface activity, good uvioresistant properties and absorption of light, nanosized TiO₂ is applied in punting materials, photosensitivematenals, project of environment materials, plastic, peeking material of the food,cosmetic, photocatalyst and so on. And the morphology and size of particles are important factors to influence their performance. Synthesis of shape controlled is in the forward position of researches and an issue of general interest of mufti-disciplines now. Various techniques have been fruitfully employed in the preparation of nanoparticles with different morphologies. The microemulsion -processing method seems to be particularly promising and undergo rapid improvement in the last few years as it does not require special instruments or extreme conditions. However, to the best of our knowledge, Nanostructured TiO₂ particles have been prepared, and the synthesis of nanorods, nanowires, nanotubes haven't been reported by the microemulsion -processing method. Few researchers discussed the formation mechanism of nanoparticles with different morphologies in microemulsion. It is significant to make an explorative investigation on preparing nanoparticles with different morphologies in microemulsion systems. The main contents of this paper are shown as below.(1) The TiO₂ nanoparticles were prepared with TiCl₄ in Emulsifier OP-10 /n-pentanol/cyclohexane/water, Triton X-100/n-hexanol/cyclohexane(or kerosene)/ water and Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide/n-butanol/cyclohexane/water W/O micro- emulsion, respectively. The microstructure, particle size and morphologies of TiO₂ were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM showed that the prepared titania particles had narrow distribution and light agglomeration. The experiment showed that the water -to-surfactant molar ratio (ω =[H₂O] /[surfactant])was the predominant factor to the...