Synthesis of submicrometer-sized titania spherical particles with a sol-gel method and their application to colloidal photonic crystals.

A synthetic method for preparing submicrometer-sized titania particles is proposed, which is based on hydrolysis of titanium alkoxide with the use of a cosolvent and an amine catalyst for alkoxide hydrolysis. The preparation was performed with different amines of ammonia, methylamine (MA), and dimethylamine (DMA) in different solvents of ethanol/acetonitrile, ethanol/methanol, ethanol/acetone, ethanol/acetonitrile, and ethanol/formamide for 0.1-0.3 M water and 0.03 M titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) at temperatures of 10-50 degrees C. The use of the ethanol/acetonitrile solvent with MA was required for preparing monodispersed, spherical particles. The number average of the titania particle sizes and their coefficient of variation were varied from 143 to 551 nm and from 5.7 to 20.6%, respectively, with reaction temperature and concentrations of water and MA. Colloidal crystals of titania particles fabricated with a sedimentation method revealed reflection peaks attributed to Bragg's diffraction. Annealing at 100-1000 degrees C led to shrinkage and crystallization of titania particles followed by an increase in the refractive index of titania particles.