Direct Formation and Characterisation of an Upward TiO2Nanobrush for Water Treatment

摘要

Titania has attracted scientific sustained great interests in the last decades due to its widernvariety of application in the fields of photoelectric, optical devices, solar cells, gas sensor,rnphotocatalysts and water treatment. Recently, many efforts have been made to producerntitania within different nanometer ranges because of its high photocatalytic efficiency. Inrnorder to improve its catalytic properties, many researchers are concentrating in reducingrnthe particle size of titania nanoparticle from several tens nanometers to severalrnnanometers by using different synthesised methods, such as sol gel, hydrothermal andrnother wet chemical methods as well as some physical methods, I. E. CVD and PVDrnmethods.rnHowever, the disadvantage of using pure titania as a catalyst is that it is extremelyrndifficult to separate these fine particles for recycling. This problem is inhibiting thernindustrial scale-up of this photocatalysis process. Therefore, it is necessary to synthesizerntitania in supported from to faciliate its applications. A comprehensive review on thernsupported titania photocatalysts has been given by Pozzo, et al. Titania can be coatedrnonto particle supports or fixed supports, however, far more research work has been donernin the former case.rnUsing nanoporous alumina membranes as templates for nanoparticles preparation is arnnovel method and has become popular in recent years. Most work done so far has beenrnon the synthesis of metal nanowiresanoclusters or semiconducting nanocomposites,rnwhere the final products were in discrete form or embedded in the alumina membrane.rnThe aim of this work is to get these well-organised nanoparticles standing up on thernsupport substrates. Only recently, there are few reports on preparation of titaniarnnanotubules on glass through Al anodization and sol-gel process. In this work, anrnaluminium layer was first sputter-deposited on glass, and then anodised to generaternsupported porous alumina film, into which titania sol was filled.