One-step hydrothermal synthesis of a TiO2-Ti3C2Tx nanocomposite with small sized TiO2 nanoparticles

Abstract A TiO 2 -Ti 3 C 2 T x nanocomposite was prepared using a simple and facile one-step hydrothermal method. The small sized TiO 2 nanoparticles were synthesized and assembled on the surface of Ti 3 C 2 T x nanosheets using Ti 3 C 2 T x itself as titanium source by in-situ technique. The microstructure of TiO 2 -Ti 3 C 2 T x nanocomposite was characterized by means of XRD、FESEM、TEM、XPS and Raman, respectively. The effects of ethanol and hydrothermal holding time on the size of TiO 2 nanoparticles were investigated. The results show that adding proper amount of ethanol into pure water results in decrease of the size of TiO 2 nanoparticles. Under ethanol-water mixed solution, increasing the time of hydrothermal treatment results in growth and even aggregation of TiO 2 nanoparticles. The TiO 2 nanoparticles with average particle size of 30 nm were obtained when the hydrothermal treatment was conducted in ethanol-water mixed solution at 200 ℃ for 12 h.