M. N. D. O. Boery, The State University of Campinas – UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil; E. Ono, E. Fujiwara, T. P. Manfrim, C. K. Suzuki, The State University of Campinas – UNICAMP, SP, Brazil, Campinas, Brazil
Titanium dioxide, also known as titania is considered safe and harmless to human and has been used in many areas as well as in medical areas. Nowadays, TiO2 has been largely studied due to its photocatalyst activity that depends on TiO2 nanoparticles properties such as crystallite size and phase (anatase/rutile). In this research, titania crystal grain smaller than 51 nm were prepared by hydrolysis and oxidation reactions of TiCl4 (titanium tetrachloride) on a vitreous silica target with constant rotating movement. The oxy-hydrogen flame was provided by a five concentric nozzle silica burner, where TiCl4 was expelled from the central tube, while adjacent tubes expelled fuel gases (hydrogen and oxygen), and inert gases (helium), used as carrier gas. The H2/O2 ratio was varied from 0.17 to 3.00 in different experiments, the chemical composition in performs was controlled by the flux rate of H2 and O2 gases through the torch. X-ray diffraction was used to identify each TiO2 crystalline phase as to estimate the average grain size by Scherrer formula and scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the size and morphology of the nanoparticles. Anatase crystal grain size varied from 25 to 46 nm and pure anatase was obtained with H2/O2 ratio ≤ 1.0, and up to 75 wt% of rutile was obtained with H2/O2 ratio > 2.0.