Synthesis of TiO_2 nanocubes induced by cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) at low temperature

摘要

A novel and facile approach to prepare TiO_2 nanocubes at 90 ℃ in 4.5 h is presented, and it employs only TiCl_4 and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) as the starting materials. Introduction of CNC which acts as morphology-inducing and coordinate agent results in accelerating the crystal growth of TiO_2 particles and promoting the formation of nanocubes. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveals regular cube-shaped particles with uniform particle size. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) indicates that particles with high crystallinity grow along the [001] and [110] directions. X-ray power diffraction (XRD) shows the peaks of dominant anatase crystal phase and cellulose. Thermal gravity analysis (TGA) suggests that CNC particles are probably embedded in the TiO_2 nanoparticles.