Template Synthesis of Well-Defined Rutile Nanoparticles by Solid-State Reaction at Room Temperature

Tiny templates for perfect particles

30 October 2020

Silica templates could be the ideal way to make uniformly shaped and sized nanoparticles for green-fuel production.

A nanoparticle’s shape and size strongly influence its physical properties, including its ability to absorb light and act as a photocatalyst. One way to achieve nanoparticle uniformity is to make them using materials that contain uniformly sized nanoscale pores as a template.

Now, researchers at Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology have developed a convenient templating technique that worked in the solid state at room temperature. When titanium dioxide and mesoporous silica were combined and left for 7 days at room temperature, precisely sized, 5-nanometre-diameter nanorods of a titanium dioxide mineral called rutile formed within the silica.

Treatment with sodium hydroxide dissolved the silica template to release the nanorods. The isolated nanorods were photocatalytically active, releasing a stream of hydrogen gas from a methanol solution when exposed to ultraviolet light, the researchers showed.

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References

1. Inorganic Chemistry 59, 7934–7938 (2020). doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c01214