Microstructural characterization of the V-doped nano-titania

Synthesis and characterization of zirconium-doped mesoporous nano-crystalline TiO2

“…Based on this, it can be inferred that either the zirconium species has been substituted into the crystal lattice sites of titania or it exists as zirconium oxide in a highly dispersed form over the titanium surface. 5,11,18 Since Zr 4+ is more electropositive than Ti 4+ , the electron cloud in each TiO 2 nanoparticle might be loosely held, thus favoring formation of less dense anatase phase. In other words, the tight packing arrangements required for rutile phase formation is fully suppressed by the addition of zirconium nitrate in water which enhances the polarity of water, thus facilitating the formation of anatase phase only.…”

“…But compared to nano-TiO 2 , that the XRD peaks of Zr/nano-TiO 2 exhibit significant peak broadening indicates that particle size of nano-TiO 2 decreased with increasing zirconium content. 11 The average particle size of the samples is shown in Table 1, estimated from the (101) peak of the anatase using the Scherrer equation:…”

“…4 Among the proven chemical methods of synthesis, sol-gel process is one of the versatile method for the synthesis of nano-materials with high surface-area-to-volume ratio. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Furthermore, this process offers several advantages including a simple, low-cost technology, low process-temperatures and flexible control of the structure and size of final products using many operating parameters. 12,13 In a typical sol-gel process, a colloidal suspension (a sol) is formed as a result of hydrolysis and polymerization reactions of the precursors, which are usually inorganic metal salts or metal organic compounds such as metal alkoxides.…”

“…A complete polymerization and loss of solvent lead to the transition from the liquid sol into a solid gel phase. 11 TiO 2 is known to exist in three crystalline modifications, namely rutile (tetragonal), anatase (tetragonal) and brookite (orthorhombic). Anatase and rutile are the common polymorphs of synthetic titania.…”

Vanadium doped titania nanoparticles for photocatalytic removal of heavy metals from aqueous solutions

“…Nano-sized titanium dioxide particles have gained wide attention in many physical and chemical applications. These include optical coating, manufacture of optoelectronic devices, photocatalysis applications for removal of dyes and heavy metals from aqueous solutions, and selective photoreduction of CO 2 for solar fuels [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Utilisation of nanocrystalline titania for the removal of toxic hydrocarbons and heavy metals from aqueous solutions has been shown to be effective in environmental clean-up.…”