Synthesis of Blue Amorphous TiO<SUB>2</SUB> and Ti<SUB><I>n</I></SUB>O<SUB>2<I>n</I>–1</SUB> by the Impulse Plasma in Liquid

Abstract

Synthesis of blue amorphous TiO2 and Ti(n)O(2n-1) by the impulse plasma in dielectric liquid is presented. The impulse plasma in liquid enables us to quench from plasma state, by which we can synthesize nanomaterials, metastable materials, etc. By the impulse plasma between titanium rods submerged into water, we have synthesized blue colored amorphous TiO2 nanoparticles suspended in water and black titanium monoxide at the bottom. Different types of titania oxides like Ti3O, TiO, Ti2O3, Ti4O7 were produced by the impulse plasma in different water temperatures (3, 30, 60, and 90 degrees C respectively). High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy analysis showed that the amorphous TiO2 contains anatase nanocrystals with less than 10 nm. UV-vis absorption spectra of the blue TiO2 nanoparticles showed higher absorbance of visible light than the commercially available pure anatase nanoparticles.