Comparative electron microscopy particle sizing of TiO₂ pigments: sample preparation and measurement

• Ralf Theissmann,
• Christopher Drury,
• Markus Rohe,
• Thomas Koch,
• Jochen Winkler and
• Petr Pikal

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2024, 15, 317–332, doi:10.3762/bjnano.15.29

• ) pigment is a non-toxic, particulate material in widespread use and found in everyone’s daily life. The particle size of the anatase or rutile crystals are optimised to produce a pigment that provides the best possible whiteness and opacity. The average particle size is intentionally much larger than the

Properties of tin oxide films grown by atomic layer deposition from tin tetraiodide and ozone

• Kristjan Kalam,
• Peeter Ritslaid,
• Tanel Käämbre,
• Aile Tamm and
• Kaupo Kukli

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 1085–1092, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.89

• hybridised with ligand Sn 5s states, while the three consecutive peaks at approximately 536.3, 537.7, and 539.6 eV correspond to states hybridised with Sn 5p states [37][38]. In the SnO2 rutile structure, the latter states are non-degenerate because of non-equidistant ligands for the axes of the coordination

Titania nanoparticles for photocatalytic degradation of ethanol under simulated solar light

• Evghenii Goncearenco,
• Iuliana P. Morjan,
• Claudiu Teodor Fleaca,
• Florian Dumitrache,
• Elena Dutu,
• Monica Scarisoreanu,
• Valentin Serban Teodorescu,
• Alexandra Sandulescu,
• Crina Anastasescu and
• Ioan Balint

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2023, 14, 616–630, doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.51

• Degussa P25 sample. Two series of samples were obtained. Series “a” includes thermally treated TiO2 nanoparticles (to remove impurities) that have different proportions of the anatase phase (41.12–90.74%) mixed with rutile and small crystallite sizes of 11–22 nm. Series “b” series represents nanoparticles

• -doped materials. It is inexpensive, non-toxic, stable in different solvents and under irradiation, and it can be doped with different elements according to specific necessities. TiO2 can crystalize in three different crystallographic structures, namely anatase, rutile, and brookite [29][30]. The

• differences in crystal structure are reflected in direct or indirect electron transitions. The bandgaps of anatase and rutile differ only by 0.2 eV, but can influence significantly the creation of electron–hole pairs, resulting in an increase of the photocatalytic activity. Anatase has a higher decomposition

A TiO₂@MWCNTs nanocomposite photoanode for solar-driven water splitting

• Anh Quynh Huu Le,
• Ngoc Nhu Thi Nguyen,
• Hai Duy Tran,
• Van-Huy Nguyen and
• Le-Hai Tran

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1520–1530, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.125

• attributed to the rutile phase [28]. The weight fraction of anatase/rutile (f) relating to the intensity of the most substantial peaks (25.4° for anatase (IA) and 27.6° for rutile (IR)) is calculated to be 73.8 % using the estimated model f = 1/(1 + 1.26IR/IA) [29]. The overlap of the prominent peak at 26.1

• ° for MWCNTs with that at 25.4° for anatase TiO2 results in a problematic identification for each component. Moreover, the rutile phase increases 3.5 times based on the intensity of the primary diffraction peak at 27.6° of TiO2@MWCNTs compared to that of TiO2. The observation indicates that anatase TiO2

• transforms into rutile. This could be due to the carbon components on the MWCNTs acting as a robust reducing agent for facilitating the transformation from anatase to rutile TiO2 by forming oxygen vacancies [30]. Generally, the capacitance of the photoelectrochemical electrode is associated with the

Role of titanium and organic precursors in molecular layer deposition of “titanicone” hybrid materials

• Arbresha Muriqi and
• Michael Nolan

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 1240–1255, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.103

• initial MLD reactions in titanicone film growth using three different surface models: anatase TiO2, rutile TiO2 and Al2O3. Calculated energetics show that while TiCl4 is reactive towards the anatase and rutile TiO2 surfaces, it is not reactive towards the Al2O3 surface. Ti(DMA)4 is reactive towards all

• the origin of the different thicknesses of EG–titanicone and GL–titanicone films observed in experimental work. We find that EG and GL coupled with TiCl4 can orient in a flat lying configuration on anatase while on rutile, the preferred orientation is upright. When combined with Ti(DMA)4, EG and GL

• prefer the flat lying configuration on all surfaces. This work shows that the choice of the surface and the metallic precursor has a major impact on the behaviour of organic species. DFT findings provide motivation to develop a low temperature rutile TiO2/titanicone film suggesting that the desired film

Direct measurement of surface photovoltage by AC bias Kelvin probe force microscopy

• Masato Miyazaki,
• Yasuhiro Sugawara and
• Yan Jun Li

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 712–720, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.63

• . The tip was cleaned by Ar+ sputtering (0.8 keV, 5 × 10−7 Torr, 5 min) to remove the contaminants and the native oxide layer. We used a rutile TiO2(110) sample to demonstrate the AC-KPFM. TiO2 is one of the promising photocatalytic materials [38][39][40] and has been widely studied using AFM and KPFM

• [41][42][43][44]. Rutile TiO2 has a bandgap of 3.0 eV [45] and shows the SPV under UV illumination [46][47][48]. A clean rutile TiO2(110) surface (Crystal Base) was prepared by several cycles of Ar+ sputtering (1 keV, 1 × 10−6 Torr, 15 min) and annealing (993 K, less than 2 × 10−10 Torr, 30 min

• disappeared in the spectrum of Δf (Figure 2b). Here, we cannot determine the polarity of the SPV because the phase for the lock-in amplifier was adjusted to maximize the absolute value of the demodulated output. We note that the response time of SPV on the rutile TiO2(110) surface is intrinsically

Sodium doping in brookite TiO₂ enhances its photocatalytic activity

• Boxiang Zhuang,
• Honglong Shi,
• Honglei Zhang and
• Zeqian Zhang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 599–609, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.52

• exceeded four times that of P25 under visible light irradiation [8]. The degradation of methyl orange by brookite nanoflowers was much more efficient than that by anatase nanorods [9]. Moreover, the heterojunction of brookite TiO2 can enhance the photocatalytic activity (e.g., the rutile/brookite TiO2

• mixes with anatase or rutile [14][15]. (2) The bandgap Eg is important for the photocatalytic behavior of brookite TiO2; however, the precise value of Eg is still unknown. The measured Eg value varies from 1.9 to 3.4 eV [16][17], and the theoretical value ranges from 1.8 to 3.3 eV [18]. (3) The

• peak intensity of brookite at 25.6° is increased from 35% to 52%, suggesting a gradual increase of the brookite content. When the sample was calcinated above 700 and 800 °C, it was transformed into Na2Ti6O13 and rutile, respectively. The crystal size is correlated to the specific surface area, which is

Engineered titania nanomaterials in advanced clinical applications

• Padmavati Sahare,
• Paulina Govea Alvarez,
• Juan Manual Sanchez Yanez,
• Gabriel Luna-Bárcenas,
• Samik Chakraborty,
• Sujay Paul and
• Miriam Estevez

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 201–218, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.15

• hydroxy groups can react with water molecules. The thus formed hydrogen bonds account for a good wettability. An annealing temperature below 450 °C still retains the hydrophilic behavior because of the combined crystalline phase (anatase and rutile), but above that temperature, the reduction of the number

• generated free electrons (e−) react with molecular oxygen to generate superoxide radicals by reduction. Several factors contribute to the photocatalytic performance of TiO2, such as the structural phase (anatase, brookite, or rutile), defects in the lattice, the degree of crystallinity, morphology

• phosphate ions than the rutile phase in body fluids, supporting the deposition of apatite. A titania nanotube array (anatase) showed increased cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation [67]. Titanium heart valves are also very compatible and compete with regular tissue valves [68]. In addition

Tin dioxide nanomaterial-based photocatalysts for nitrogen oxide oxidation: a review

• Viet Van Pham,
• Hong-Huy Tran,
• Thao Kim Truong and
• Thi Minh Cao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 96–113, doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.7

• , surface engineering, heterojunction construction, co-catalyst, which will be thoroughly outlined in this review. Structure and bandgap SnO2 has a crystal structure similar to that of rutile TiO2 [41][42]. The unit cell parameters of rutile SnO2 are a = b = 0.47374 nm and c = 0.31864 nm [43]. In one unit

• cell of rutile SnO2, a Sn4+ ion is bonded to six oxygen ions, and every oxygen atom is coordinated by three Sn4+ ions, forming a (6, 3) coordination structure [44]. When SnO2 materials are prepared as thin films with two to eight layers the bandgap is larger than that of bulk SnO2 and decreases with

• predominantly point defects, that is, defects associated with one lattice point, such as cation or oxygen ion vacancies. OVs determine the physical and chemical properties of metal oxides. Figure 4a shows the natural crystal structure of SnO2 synthesized by vapor transport [48]. The (110) plane of rutile SnO2

Interface interaction of transition metal phthalocyanines with strontium titanate (100)

• Reimer Karstens,
• Thomas Chassé and
• Heiko Peisert

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 485–496, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.39

• cells, field-effect transistors (FETs), and sensors [1][2]. Possibly, one of the most extensively studied oxide material in this context is rutile titanium dioxide [3]. However, also interfaces between SrTiO3 (STO) and organic molecules are studied increasingly using both experimental [4][5] and

• terminations by LEED. It might be expected that the presence of the different metal ions on the substrate surface (Sr or Ti) affects possible interactions with deposited organic molecules. We note that the surface structure in the topmost layer of TiO2-terminated STO significantly differs from most rutile TiO2

• Discussion Characterization of the substrate surfaces For related interfaces between rutile TiO2 and organic molecules, significantly different interaction strengths in similar systems were reported, which can be most likely ascribed to different substrate preparation procedures [47][48][49][50]. Therefore

Exploring the fabrication and transfer mechanism of metallic nanostructures on carbon nanomembranes via focused electron beam induced processing

• Christian Preischl,
• Linh Hoang Le,
• Elif Bilgilisoy,
• Armin Gölzhäuser and
• Hubertus Marbach

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 319–329, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.26

• suitable combination of substrate and precursor is a prerequisite, that is, the substrate must be chemically altered by the electron beam and the precursor molecule must be susceptible to the altered site. Substrates that are known to fulfill the prerequisite are silicon oxide [10][12], rutile TiO2(110

TiO_x/Pt₃Ti(111) surface-directed formation of electronically responsive supramolecular assemblies of tungsten oxide clusters

• Marco Moors,
• Yun An,
• Agnieszka Kuc and
• Kirill Yu. Monakhov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 203–212, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.16

• . However, the resulting formation of W3O9 by thermal WO3 evaporation under UHV conditions differs significantly from other WO3 deposition techniques. For example, the formation of hydrated tungsten acid species could be demonstrated by electrochemical evaporation of tungsten oxide on rutile surfaces under

Unravelling the interfacial interaction in mesoporous SiO₂@nickel phyllosilicate/TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures for photocatalytic activity

• Bridget K. Mutuma,
• Xiluva Mathebula,
• Isaac Nongwe,
• Bonakele P. Mtolo,
• Boitumelo J. Matsoso,
• Rudolph Erasmus,
• Zikhona Tetana and
• Neil J. Coville

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1834–1846, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.165

• inertness, low cost, and non-toxicity, titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been widely used as a photocatalyst in the degradation of dyes in textile industries as well as in water-treatment systems [5][6]. There are three different phases of TiO2, namely anatase, rutile, and brookite. Compared to the rutile and

Adsorption behavior of tin phthalocyanine onto the (110) face of rutile TiO₂

• Lukasz Bodek,
• Mads Engelund,
• Aleksandra Cebrat and
• Bartosz Such

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 821–828, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.67

• , Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Überlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland 10.3762/bjnano.11.67 Abstract The adsorption behavior of tin phthalocyanine (SnPc) molecules on rutile TiO2(110) was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Low-temperature STM

• molecules into the Sn-down conformation was observed either after sample annealing at 200 °C or as a result of tip-induced manipulation. Room-temperature measurements conducted for a coverage of close to a monolayer showed no tendency for molecular arrangement. Keywords: rutile (110) surface; scanning

• stability. Since metal oxides are commonly used as support for the growth of molecular layers in many technological solutions, it is not surprising that Pcs on titanium dioxide faces have been widely studied. Most studies of phthalocyanine adsorption on rutile (110) and (011) faces consider flat Pcs (CoPc

Effect of Ag loading position on the photocatalytic performance of TiO₂ nanocolumn arrays

• Jinghan Xu,
• Yanqi Liu and
• Yan Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 717–728, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.59

• affords specimens with different electron transfer characteristics than those of rutile and anatase TiO2, and the as-prepared films fit the template well. When Ag particles are combined with TiO2, the photocatalytic performance of the film can be significantly enhanced by hot electron injection [24

Correction: Photocatalytic antibacterial performance of TiO₂ and Ag-doped TiO₂ against S. aureus. P. aeruginosa and E. coli

• Kiran Gupta,
• R. P. Singh,
• Ashutosh Pandey and
• Anjana Pandey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 547–549, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.43

• the measured XRD pattern to powder diffraction patterns in the International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) database. The characteristic peaks of the TiO2 nanoparticle sample indicate an anatase phase (2θ = 24.8°, 44.5°, compared with JCPDS file no. 00-021-1272) with some indication of a rutile

• relating to Ag, although very low intensity peaks related to Ag were observed for the sample calcined at 600 °C [6]. In a previous work, it was found that the intensity of the anatase peaks decreased in comparison to the rutile peaks as the annealing temperature increased; and after annealing at 800 °C

• , complete rutile TiO2 phase was obtained [7]. It was previously reported that a mixture of anatase and rutile TiO2 nanoparticles has higher photocatalytic activity than pure anatase or pure rutile TiO2 nanoparticles under UV-light excitation [8]. Furthermore, it was shown that calcination of the

Atomic-resolution imaging of rutile TiO₂(110)-(1 × 2) reconstructed surface by non-contact atomic force microscopy

• Daiki Katsube,
• Shoki Ojima,
• Eiichi Inami and
• Masayuki Abe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 443–449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.35

• Systems Engineering, Kochi University of Technology, 185 Miyanokuchi, Tosayamada, Kami, Kochi 782-8502, Japan 10.3762/bjnano.11.35 Abstract The structure of the rutile TiO2(110)-(1 × 2) reconstructed surface is a phase induced by oxygen reduction. There is ongoing debate about the (1 × 2) reconstruction

• characterize the surface. Ti2O3 rows appeared as bright spots in both NC-AFM and STM images observed in the same area. High-resolution NC-AFM images revealed that the rutile TiO2(110)-(1 × 2) reconstructed surface is composed of two domains with different types of asymmetric rows. Keywords: non-contact atomic

• force microscopy; (1 × 2) reconstruction; rutile; surface structure; titanium dioxide (TiO2); Introduction Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a well-known photocatalyst and has been studied for applications in water splitting and the coating of materials [1]. To optimize the photocatalytic function, it is

Fabrication of Ag-modified hollow titania spheres via controlled silver diffusion in Ag–TiO₂ core–shell nanostructures

• Bartosz Bartosewicz,
• Malwina Liszewska,
• Bogusław Budner,
• Marta Michalska-Domańska,
• Krzysztof Kopczyński and
• Bartłomiej J. Jankiewicz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 141–146, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.12

• template was used in the fabrication of rattle-type HSs of Au@TiO2 using multistep template deposition and a surface-protected etching method [13], of TiO2 HSs of mixed anatase/rutile composition loaded with noble metal NPs (Au, Pt, Pd) [14], and of N-doped Ag/TiO2 HSs [15]. A hard-templating method with a

Novel hollow titanium dioxide nanospheres with antimicrobial activity against resistant bacteria

• Carol López de Dicastillo,
• Cristian Patiño,
• María José Galotto,
• Yesseny Vásquez-Martínez,
• Claudia Torrent,
• Daniela Alburquenque,
• Alejandro Pereira and
• Juan Escrig

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1716–1725, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.167

• , and can be irreversibly transformed into a stable rutile structure by heating, this process did not occur during calcination. The anatase–rutile transition occurs between 400 to 1000 °C, and it is dependent on several parameters, such as the size of the nanocrystals, impurity content, microstructure

• and surface area. The necessary activation energy is high and the process is slow. In addition, some works have also confirmed that the anatase phase can be stable up to 600 °C, and the rutile phase can be delayed to higher temperatures [36][37][38]. The anatase crystalline structure was confirmed by

• its higher photocatalytic nature than rutile or brookite structures [39][40][41]. The small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) technique is a powerful technique that is based on the spatial fluctuations of the electronic density of the material that allows for the measurement of polymers, alloys, and

BiOCl/TiO₂/diatomite composites with enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamine B

• Minlin Ao,
• Kun Liu,
• Xuekun Tang,
• Zishun Li,
• Qian Peng and
• Jing Huang

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1412–1422, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.139

• change to Bi2O3, and Bi2SiO5 and Bi2Ti2O7 will be formed (Figure 1b). At the same time, TiO2 will gradually change from anatase to rutile, resulting in significant degradation of photocatalytic properties [31]. We speculate that the existence of BiOCl leads to the change of the crystal transition

• the transformation of TiO2 and BiOCl at higher temperatures (e.g., TiO2 transforms from anatase to rutile, and BiOCl also transforms to Bi2O3 with the generation of Bi2SiO5 and Bi2Ti2O7). The corresponding kinetic curves are shown in Figure 7d,e,f. The degradation of RhB conforms to the pseudo-first

Imaging the surface potential at the steps on the rutile TiO₂(110) surface by Kelvin probe force microscopy

• Masato Miyazaki,
• Huan Fei Wen,
• Quanzhen Zhang,
• Yuuki Adachi,
• Jan Brndiar,
• Ivan Štich,
• Yan Jun Li and
• Yasuhiro Sugawara

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1228–1236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.122

• , Bratislava, Slovakia 10.3762/bjnano.10.122 Abstract Although step structures have generally been considered to be active sites, their role on a TiO2 surface in catalytic reactions is poorly understood. In this study, we measured the contact potential difference around the steps on a rutile TiO2(110)-(1 × 1

• on rutile TiO2(110) surfaces with O2 exposure using KPFM and observed the drop in CPD at the steps, indicating that the work function locally decreased. Moreover, we found, for the first time, that the drop in CPD at a step was larger than that at a step. We discuss a possible origin of the change

• (1 keV, 6.7 × 10−7 mbar, 5 min) and annealing (600 K, less than 2.7 × 10−10 mbar, 20 min) to remove the native oxide layer and other contaminants. A clean rutile TiO2(110) crystal (provided by Furuuchi Chemical Corporation) was prepared by dozens of cycles of Ar+ sputtering (1 keV, 1.3 × 10−6 mbar

Photoactive nanoarchitectures based on clays incorporating TiO₂ and ZnO nanoparticles

• Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky,
• Pilar Aranda,
• Marwa Akkari,
• Nithima Khaorapapong and
• Makoto Ogawa

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1140–1156, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.114

• NPs grew from 6 to 18 nm during calcination at 500–700 °C with a phase transition from anatase to rutile taking place at ca. 650 °C [96]. Layered silicates, such as kaolinite and montmorillonite, also stabilize the formation of ZnO NPs (Figure 2A) from zinc cyclohexanebutyrate hydrolyzed in dimethyl

Tailoring the stability/aggregation of one-dimensional TiO₂(B)/titanate nanowires using surfactants

• Atiđa Selmani,
• Johannes Lützenkirchen,
• Kristina Kučanda,
• Dario Dabić,
• Engelbert Redel,
• Ida Delač Marion,
• Damir Kralj,
• Darija Domazet Jurašin and
• Maja Dutour Sikirić

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 1024–1037, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.103

• . Keywords: 1D nanomaterials; cationic surfactants; stability; surface complexation model; titanate nanowires; Introduction Among the extensive variety of metal oxide nanomaterials, titanium dioxide nanomaterials (TNMs) (e.g., anatase, rutile, TiO2(B) and titanate) have attracted considerable attention

Rapid, ultraviolet-induced, reversibly switchable wettability of superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic surfaces

• Yunlu Pan,
• Wenting Kong,
• Bharat Bhushan and
• Xuezeng Zhao

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 866–873, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.87

• chemicals Titanium dioxide (TiO2, rutile) with a diameter of ≈25 nm and aluminium dioxide (Al2O3) with a diameter of ≈30 nm were acquired from Shanghai Aladdin Bio-Chem Technology Corporation (Shanghai, China). 1H,1H,2H,2H-Perfluorooctyl(trimethoxy)silane (PFOS) was obtained from Shanghai Macklin

• Biochemical Corporation (Shanghai, China). Other chemicals include 99.9% ethanol used as the solvent and deionized water was used in the CA measurements. Preparation of coating surfaces Rutile phase TiO2 was modified by a simple hydrolysis reaction in order to obtain superhydrophobicity. In the modification

• process, 1 g of PFOS was dissolved into 50 mL ethanol and stirred for 1 h at ambient temperature in order to fully hydrolyse fluoroalkylsilane. Next, 3 g of rutile TiO2 was added into the solution and stirred for another 1 h to form the suspension. The suspension could be used to spray or paint a

An efficient electrode material for high performance solid-state hybrid supercapacitors based on a Cu/CuO/porous carbon nanofiber/TiO₂ hybrid composite

• Mamta Sham Lal,
• Thirugnanam Lavanya and
• Sundara Ramaprabhu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 781–793, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.78

• to the formation of rutile crystal structure. The composite material shows only 19% weight loss, which implies that the material has high thermal stability due to the uniform growth of the TiO2 nanoparticles on the fiber, providing high stability to the composite material. Electrochemical properties