N. Setoudeh, A. Saidi, A. Shafyei and N. J. Welham,
Volume 25, Issue 1 (7-2006)
Abstract
Anatase-to-rutile phase transformation was studied in milled and unmilled samples. Ball milling was carried out in two types of ball mills, planetary and tumbler, with a ball-to-powder ratio of 40:1 over 2-48 hours. First, the unmilled samples
were heated in the furnace at various temperatures for different periods of time. The results revealed that the anatase-to-rutile transformation completed at 980 after 48 hours. The rate of transformation in milled samples was greatly higher than that of unmilled ones. Activation energy in unmilled samples was about 440 kj/mol. The rate of transformation in the planetary ball mill was higher than that in tumbler mill. In the former, transformation almost finished after 16 hours of milling while in the lattar, it did not finish even after 48 hours. XRD results revealed that the transformation proceeds through an intermediate srilankite phase in all milled samples. However, srilankite was not observed in the unmilled samples.
S. Daneshvar E Asl, S. Kh. Sadrnezhaad,
Volume 37, Issue 2 (9-2018)
Abstract
Rutile-phase titanium dioxide nanorod arrays were prepared by the hydrothermal method. Then, anatase-phase nanoleaves were successfully synthesized on the nanorod arrays via mild aqueous chemistry. Nanorod arrays scanning electron microscopy revealed that the thin film is uniform and crack free and the average diameter and height of the nanorods are 90 nm and 2 µm, respectively. Furthermore, nanorods are vertical to the substrate surface and have desired coverage density due to the predeposition of TiO2 seed layer which leaded to decrease the surface roughness of the substrate. Nanoleafed nanorods scanning electron microscopy indicated that the nanoleaves were grown uniformly on the entire surface of nanorods and the specific surface area and roughness factor of those are significantly improved. Energy dispersive spectrums suggested that F- and Cl- ions are partially doped into TiO2 crystals. Raman and X-ray spectra confirmed the formation of anatase-phase nanoleaves on the rutile-phase nanorods. X-ray diffraction also indicated that the nanorod arrays are highly oriented with respect to the substrate surface. The diffused reflectancetransmittance data revealed the incident light was more efficiently harvested by the nanoleafed nanorod thin film and the values of energy gap are 2.78 and 2.82 eV for rutile TiO2 nanorod and rutile+anatase TiO2 nanoleafed nanorod thin films, respectively. Synthesized nanostructure, having improved charge separation and transfer (due to the presence of the surface anatase/rutile junctions), high specific surface area and light harvesting (due to the presence of the nanoleaves) and low band gap energy (due to the nonmetallic elements doping), is viable alternative to traditional single crystalline TiO2 nanorods for highly efficient photoelectrochemical applications.
