Titanium butoxide molar ratio effect in the TiO 2 nanoparticles size and methylene blue degradation

Abstract This work focuses on the studies of titanium butoxide (Ti(OBu) 4 ) molar ratio effect in the TiO 2 nanoparticles size via solvothermal method for methylene blue degradation. The materials used for the synthesis were: Ti(OBu) 4 as titanium source, anhydrous ethanol (EtOH) as solvent, and nitric acid (HNO 3 ) as catalyst. The TiO 2 nanoparticles demonstrate growth in a pure anatase phase tetragonal crystalline structure, where other phases or amorphous material is not present. The TiO 2 nanoparticles reveal a rounded shaped and when the amount of titanium precursor increases, the nanoparticle size decreases. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue is influenced by the nanoparticle size where the material with a 2:30:2 molar ratio, Ti(OBu) 4 :EtOH:HNO 3 , presents the minor nanoparticle size and a degradation similar to results obtained by commercial TiO 2 (P25) at a time of 90 min.