Characteristics of TiO2 particles prepared by simple solution method using TiCl3 precursor

In this work, TiO2 particle has been prepared by simple solution method using TiCl3 precursor. The XRD analysis confirmed the presence of rutile TiO2 which is indicated by the peaks corresponding to (110), (101), (111), (211) and (002) plane. The crystallite size was about 7.25 nm as obtained by Scherer equation. The SEM image revealed that the rutile TiO2 exhibits agglomeration with spherical morphology. The composition is confirmed by EDS measurement which shows 17.5 at % of titanium and 58.2 at % of oxygen, respectively. Based on SEM result, the size of the primary particle was about 100 nm. The PSA measurement showed that the average particle diameter was about 759 nm with a median d50 (<50%) of about 200 nm. These results show that TiO2 sample was nanocrystalline with primary particle diameter of about 100 nm and 759 nm, respectively. The particle diameter was still large probably due to the existence of agglomeration which is acquired by PSA. However, these properties can be used as preliminary information for applications that requires nanocrystalline TiO2 with rutile phase by using simple and low-cost preparation method.