Aggregation stability of titanium dioxide hydrosols

Titanium dioxide based ceramic membranes have recently attracted great interest because of their catalytic and photocatalytic abilities and other advantages typical of the ceramic membranes. For the preparation of the selective layer of the ultrafiltration ceramic TiO{sub 2}-based membranes, hydrosol, as a rule, is used as a starting material. The synthesis of a selective layer of the membrane with predetermined properties requires data on the colloid-chemical properties of these sols, which are rather scarce. The electrophoretic mobility and the size of the scattering centers of the TiO{sub 2} hydrosols obtained through titanium tetraethoxide hydrolysis were measured at 0.5-3.0 pH units. Coagulation thresholds were estimated in the presence of NaNO{sub 3} and Na{sub 2}SO{sub 4}. Under the conditions investigated, the aggregation stability was shown to be mainly dependent on the structural component of the disjoining pressure. The existence of a hydrated gel-layer on the surface of sol particles was proposed.