Rietveld refinement and structural characterization of TiO2/Ti2O3/SiO2 nanocomposites

Abstract

TiO2/Ti2O3/SiO2 nanocomposites were synthesized through the co-precipitation technique. The structural characterization of the prepared sample has been done with complementary methods like X-Ray diffraction (XRD). Formation of TiO2/Ti2O3 and nanostructural changes in terms of lattice imperfection have been estimated from the analysis of X-ray powder diffraction data. Rietveld method was used to refine the XRD data. Refinement leads to two crystalline phases of Titanium oxide i.e Ti2O3 and TiO2. The crystal structure of Ti2O3 was found to have a trigonal structure with space group R-3c whereas the crystal structure of TiO2 has a tetragonal structure with space group 141/a m d. In the present paper the lattice parameters, bond length, bond angle, crystallite size, lattice strain, dislocation density were studied in detail. The Wyckoff positions and interatomic distance have been calculated. Some applications of nanosize TiO2 and Ti2O3 have also been highlighted.