Influence Of TiCl_4 Precursor In Hydrothermal Synthesis Of TiO_2 Nanostructures

摘要

Rutile TiO_2 films were deposited on the FTO substrate by the hydrothermal process using TTIP and TiCl_4 as the titania precursor. Our study manifestly exhibits the influence of TiCl_4 precursor on the hydrothermal growth of the TiO_2 structure. The morphology of prepared film varies from nano-cauliflower to nano-flower to nano-parallelepiped rod-like structure with the addition of TiCl_4 as the precursor. When TiCl_4 is introduced in the precursor HC1 corresponding to four times of the Ti~(4+) concentration is generated as a by-product during the reaction, these additional HC1 promotes the etching of the nanostructure enabling the nanostructure to unfurl. We conclude that the tailoring of the nanostructure can be performed by addition of TiCl_4 in the precursor