Morphology control and characteristic parameter R of molten-salt-synthesized K2Ti6O13 whiskers

The influence of reaction conditions including reaction temperature, reaction duration, and molar ratio of reactants on the morphology of products was systematically investigated, in order to prepare potassium hexatitanate (K2Ti6O13) whiskers with uniform morphology and high crystallinity by molten salt synthesis toward industrial applications. Three typical types of K2Ti6O13 whiskers including short, long, and thick K2Ti6O13 whiskers with the length and diameter ranges falling in 0–20 and 0.5–2 μm, 10–50 and 0.5–1 μm, and 10–50 and 2–10 μm, respectively, are presented in particular. After surface modification with silane coupling agent A-172, all the three K2Ti6O13 whisker samples can evenly disperse in butyl acetate forming parallel arrays along the preferential growth direction [010] and exhibit predominated peaks of crystallographic planes of (200) and (20 $$ \bar{1} $$ ) in X-ray diffraction patterns. A characteristic parameter R which is sensitive to the reaction conditions and directly relates to the size and crystallinity of K2Ti6O13 whiskers was developed from the intensity ratio of (200)/(20 $$ \bar{1} $$ ) in order to quickly evaluate the feature of K2Ti6O13 whiskers.