Understanding the defect chemistry of oxide nanoparticles for creating new functionalities: A critical review

Switchable Intrinsic Defect Chemistry of Titania for Catalytic Applications

The energy crisis is one of the most serious issue that we confront today. Among different strategies to gain access to reliable fuel, the production of hydrogen fuel through the water-splitting reaction has emerged as the most viable alternative. Specifically, the studies on defect-rich TiO2 materials have been proved that it can perform as an efficient catalyst for electrocatalytic and photocatalytic water-splitting reactions. In this invited review, we have included a general and critical discussion on the background of titanium sub-oxides structure, defect chemistries and the consequent disorder arising in defect-rich Titania and their applications towards water-splitting reactions. We have particularly emphasized the origin of the catalytic activity in Titania-based material and its effects on the structural, optical and electronic behavior. This review article also summarizes studies on challenging issues on defect-rich Titania and new possible directions for the development of an efficient catalyst with improved catalytic performance.

Structural, optical and morphological analyses of pristine titanium di-oxide nanoparticles--synthesized via sol-gel route

Pure titanium di-oxide nanoparticles (TiO2) were synthesized by sol-gel technique at room temperature with appropriate reactants. The synthesis of anatase phase TiO2 nanoparticles was achieved by tetraisopropyl orthotitanate and 2-propanol as common starting materials and the product was annealed at 450 °C for 4 h. The synthesized product was characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-VIS-Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. XRD pattern confirmed the crystalline nature and tetragonal structure of synthesized composition. Average grain size was determined from X-ray line broadening, using the Debye-Scherrer relation. The functional groups present in the sample were identified by FTIR spectroscopy. Diffuse reflectance measurement indicated an absorption band edge on UV-region. The allowed direct and indirect band gap energies, as well as the crystallite size of pure TiO2 nanoparticles are calculated from DRS analysis. The microstructure and elemental identification were done by SEM with EDX analysis.