Application of titanium dioxide synthesized by solvothermal method in photocatalytic decomposition of ethylene and effect of the heating time on the crystallite size of titanium dioxide

Abstract

The surface defect of nano-TiO₂ powder prepared by a solvothermal method was investigated by using photocatalytic decomposition of ethylene. The result shows that the photoactivity increases with increasing in the crystallite size. As a result of larger crystallite size having more surface defects. The crystalline structures and morphologies of the powder have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The result shows that the different preparation conditions such as heating time and heating temperature have great influences on the properties of nano-TiO₂ powders. The growth rate of titania particles follow Arrhenius’s law. Moreover, different heating time had different effects on the crystallite size depending on heating temperature. The higher the heating temperature, the greater the effect of heating time on the crystallite size.