Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, VIC 3216, Australia.
Chemistry. 2013 Jan 14;19(3):1091-6. doi: 10.1002/chem.201202451. Epub 2012 Nov 23.
The mineral ilmenite is one of the most abundant ores in the Earth's crust and it is the main source for the industrial production of bulk titanium oxide. At the same time, methods to convert ilmenite into nanostructures of TiO(2) (which are required for new advanced applications, such as solar cells, batteries, and photocatalysts) have not been explored to any significant extent. Herein, we describe a simple and effective method for the preparation of rutile TiO(2) nanorods from ball-milled ilmenite. These nanorods have small dimensions (width: 5-20 nm, length: 50-100 nm, thickness: 2-5 nm) and possess large specific surface areas (up to 97 m(2) g(-1)). Dissolution/hydrolysis/precipitation is proposed as a growth mechanism. The nanorods were found to have attractive photocatalytic properties in the degradation of oxalic acid. Their photocatalytic activity is close to that of the benchmark Degussa P25 material and better than that of a commercial high-surface-area rutile powder.
钛铁矿是地壳中最丰富的矿石之一，也是工业生产钛氧化物的主要原料。同时，将钛铁矿转化为 TiO(2) 的纳米结构（这是新型先进应用所必需的，如太阳能电池、电池和光催化剂）的方法尚未得到充分探索。在此，我们描述了一种从球磨钛铁矿制备锐钛矿 TiO(2) 纳米棒的简单有效方法。这些纳米棒具有较小的尺寸（宽度：5-20nm，长度：50-100nm，厚度：2-5nm）和较大的比表面积（高达 97m(2)g(-1)）。我们提出了溶解/水解/沉淀的生长机制。纳米棒在降解草酸方面表现出了吸引人的光催化性能。其光催化活性接近于基准 Degussa P25 材料，优于商业高比表面积锐钛矿粉末。
