Snythesis and characterization of TiO2 nanostars

Abstract

In this work, TiO2 nanostars, which have TiO2 nanoparticles in their core and have branches on the surface of TiO2 nanoparticle, were synthesized. Hence, firstly TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by hydrothermal method. After that, the nanoparticles were characterized by Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (PCS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-Ray Diffractometry (XRD), elemental analysis. Thus, it was determined that the size of TiO2 nanoparticles was 6 nm, their particle shape was spherical and the crystalline form of TiO2 was anatase. Moreover, the carbon percentage on the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles was determined to be 8,38 %. Afterwards, so as to synthesize nanostars, TiO2 nanoparticles were modified with five silanes with different molecular weights, with three carboxylic acids with different molecular weights, with one beta-ketoester and also with 10 urea molecules with different molecular weights (the urea molecules were synthesized in this work) and also, poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was grafted onto TiO2 nanoparticles according to "the combination of both grafting methods'; method. After that, the silane-modified, carboxylic acid-modified, beta-ketoester-modified and urea-modified TiO2 nanoparticles were characterized by GC/MS, elemental analysis, FT-IR, EDX and the PMMA-grafted TiO2 nanoparticles were characterized by FT-IR and TGA/DSC.