Indian researchers (Theivasanthi and Alagar) have prepared stable titania nanopowder in an easy method. The group, from Centre for Research and Post Graduate Department of Physics, 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.” The researchers have explained about this nanopowder in their report [Theivasanthi et al, arXiv:1307.1091]. Findings of this study suggests as an efficient semiconducting material that the prepared 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. It is widely used as a photo-catalyst due to its relatively cheap cost, non toxicity and high chemical stability. It has more applications in various industries like aerospace, sports, paint (to give high gloss, rich depth of color and to replace metal lead), food (to increase the shelf life of products) and cosmetics (UV protection in sunscreens and many other products).

XRD image of tetragonal anatase phase titania nanopowder is in Fig.1. This work throws some light on and helps further research on nano-sized titania powder.

 

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) or titania, is the oxide of titanium and occurs naturally in anatase, brookite & rutile forms. Anatase phase is considered for various applications which is the most wanted material. But rutile phase is the most abundantly available in nature. It still remains a challenge to keep anatase phase stable from easy transformation to rutile.

 

In this study, we have made an attempt to prepare tetragonal pure anatase phase TiO2 nanoparticles in a simple way without any additives. Since, no any chemical components used during the preparation of nanoparticles, we believe that the product is biocompatible and bio-safe and can be readily used for food and medicinal industries. Besides, the present method is economical, fast, room temperature, free of pollution, environmentally benign and suitable for large scale production. The estimated particle size of the sample is 74nm. It is well expected that this synthesis technique would be extended to prepare many other important metal oxide nanostructures. 

 

The researchers further comment on this issue that dislocation density increases while particle size decreases. It implies that the prepared TiO2 nanoparticles have more strength and hardness than their bulk (TiO2) counterpart.

 

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