Sol–gel preparation of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in presence of a linear polysaccharide

Abstract

Metal oxide fine particles are widely used in industrial applications as catalysts, pigments and so on. In this work, titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles were synthesised by controlled hydrolysis of titanium alkoxide in presence of a linear polysaccharide (1–3 linked β-d-galactapyranose and 1, 4 linked 3, 6 anyhdro-α-l-galactopyranose). Spherical crystalline nanoparticles in the range of about 5–60 nm were obtained when the polysaccharide was used. The obtained nanoparticles were characterised by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and particle analysis distribution.