| Nov 18, 2013 |
New innovative stable titania nanopowder
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(Nanowerk News) Indian researchers (Theivasanthi and Alagar) have prepared stable titania nanopowder in a novel, easy method. The group, from the Centre for Research and Post Graduate Department of Physics at Ayya Nadar Janaki Ammal College, comments: “To our best knowledge, the adopted physical grinding method is very useful one for mass production of titania nanopowder in a short span of time.”
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The researchers have published a report about their nanopowder ("Titanium dioxide (TiO2) Nanoparticles XRD Analyses: An Insight"). Findings of this study suggest that the prepared material – as an efficient semiconducting material – can be utilized in solar cells, optoelectronic, power, semiconductor devices, catalysis, electronics, photonics, sensing, medicine, lithium-ion batteries, filters, anti-reflective & high reflective coatings, water splitting devices and to solve many serious environmental/pollution challenges. TiO2
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| XRD pattern of TiO2 nanoparticles.
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Titanium dioxide, or titania, is the oxide of titanium and occurs naturally in anatase, brookite and rutile forms. Anatase phase is considered for numerous applications and is the most widely used material. But rutile phase is the form most abundantly available in nature. It still remains a challenge to keep anatase phase stable from easy transformation to rutile.
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In this study, the researchers have made an attempt to prepare tetragonal pure anatase phase TiO2 nanoparticles in a simple way without any additives. Since no chemical components are used during the preparation of nanoparticles, the team believes that the product is biocompatible and bio-safe and can be readily used for food and medicinal industries.
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Besides, the present method is economical, fast, at room temperature, free of pollution, environmentally benign and suitable for large-scale production. The estimated particle size of the sample is 74 nm. It can be expected that this synthesis technique would be useful in preparing many other important metal oxide nanostructures.
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The researchers further point out that dislocation density increases while particle size decreases. This implies that the prepared TiO2 nanoparticles possess more strength and hardness than their bulk counterpart.
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