Controlled synthesis of substrate supported TiO2 nanostructures with different/interesting morphologies

Abstract

Due to its physical and chemical properties, the semi-conductor titanium dioxide (TiO2) has gained high interest for its application in photocatalysis, photovoltaics, biomedical applications, batteries, sensors, self-cleaning materials and much more. Since the performance of the TiO2 material in these photo-induced applications is determined by the efficiency of the device and the interacting media, a high specific surface area of the TiO2 is desired. This can be accomplished by the synthesis of very small nanoparticles for which the surface-to-volume ratio is very high. On the other hand, high surface area/porosity in TiO2 films can be introduced by the synthesis method and deposition technique. Furthermore, other characteristics such as particle size, particle agglomeration, surface defects, hydroxyl groups and crystal phase determine the efficiency of the material. For both the photocatalytic as the photovoltaic applications, anatase TiO2 is considered as the most active phase. The aim of this thesis consisted in the development of a stable dispersion of very small (<10 nm) anatase TiO2 nanoparticles which can be applied as precursor for the controlled synthesis of different/interesting substrate supported TiO2 morphologies for a wide range of applications.