Studies on influence of reflux time on synthesis of nanocrystalline TiO2 prepared by peroxotitanate complex solutions

Abstract Aqueous peroxotitanate complex (PTC) precursor was used to obtain phase pure anatase nanocrystaline TiO2. A wet chemical synthesis route was used in which number of aqueous solutions of PTC was refluxed for different time intervals to study the effect of reflux time on final product. Several characterization techniques were used such as DSC–TGA, XRD, UV–Vis, SEM and TEM. The study revealed that there is a significant influence of reflux time on structural, morphological and optical properties of TiO2. As reflux time of PTC has been increased, crystallite size found to be increased. Also, surface morphology of TiO2 nanoparticles changed from ‘hexagonal shape’ to ‘rice like’ shape and further in ‘ellipsoid rod like’ shape. Optical band gap energy and refractive index incurred to be altered with respect to reflux time of PTC. Detailed study of refluxed PTC solutions has been reported for the first time in the literature.