Polymorphism of nanocrystalline TiO 2 prepared in a stagnation flame : formation of the TiO 2 -II phase

Abstract

A metastable “high-pressure” phase known as α-PbO2-type TiO2 or TiO2-II is prepared via a single-step synthesis using a laminar premixed stagnation flame. Three other TiO2 polymorphs, namely anatase, rutile and TiO2-B phases, can also be obtained by tuning the oxygen/fuel ratio. TiO2-II is observed as a mixture with rutile under oxygen-lean flame conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that this phase has been identified in flame-synthesised TiO2. The formation of TiO2-II in an atmospheric pressure flame cannot be explained thermodynamically and is hypothesised to be kinetically driven through the oxidation and solid-state transformation of a sub-oxide TiO2−x intermediate. In this scenario, rutile is nucleated from the metastable TiO2-II phase instead of directly from a molten/amorphous state. Mixtures containing three-phase heterojunctions of anatase, rutile, and TiO2-II nanoparticles as prepared here in slightly oxygen-lean flames might be important in photocatalysis due to enhanced electron–hole separation.